"HYDROTHERMAL SYNTHESIS OF ULTRA VIOLET-VISIBLE LIGHT RESPONSIVE RUTHENIUM DOPED TITANIA (RuXTi1-XO2) NANOSHEET AND ITS EFFECT ON PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION OF REACTIVE RED DYES "

In the present work, ruthenium doped titania (RuXTi1-XO2) nanosheet was synthesized by hydrothermal method using titanium tetraisopropoxide and ruthenium trichloride trihydrate as metal precursors. The structural, chemical
and morphological properties were determined using X-Ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The synthesizedRuXTi1-XO2 nanocrystals were used as
photocatalyst for the degradation of Reactive Red 198 (RR) dye in aqueous solutions at the room temperature. The
photocatalytic activity of the RuXTi1-XO2 nanosheet was evaluated and compared with its control counterpart TiO2.
Significant improvement in dye degradation is noted for RuXTi1-XO2, when compared to TiO2. Which is corroborated to the increased visible light absorption due to the presence of ruthenium in the crystallite sites of TiO2 that resulted in well separated photo-generated electron and hole pairs under the light illumination.