metal ions (dopants) in the sol allows the ions to have direct interaction
with the polycondensation of titanium alkoxide during the
sol–gel process, and metal ions could be doped into the lattice of
TiO2 by solvothermal method. Additionally, crystallization of TiO2
could occur in the process of solvothermal treatment, avoiding the
process of calcination of TiO2 at high temperature. To our best
knowledge, sulfur and iron co-modified TiO2 using sol–gel process
followed with solvothermal method under facile conditions
(120 ◦C) have not yet been reported.
In the present work, sulfur and irons codoped TiO2 photocatalysts
with excellent photocatalytic activity for photodegradation
of phenol under visible light were obtained directly via a lowtemperature
solvothermal method. The nanoparticles prepared by
this method were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD),
FT-IR, UV–vis diffused reflectance spectra (DRS), X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy (XPS), EPR and BET-surface areas. The effect of
amount of iron dopants on the properties of sulfur modified TiO2
of the phenol degradation was also investigated in the visible light
region.