Effects of Mineral Tourmaline Particles on Photocatalytic Activities of RE/TiO2 Composite Thin Films

The composite TiO2 films containing the mineral tourmaline particles and rare earth elements (T/RE/TiO2 )were prepared by a sol-gel method using Ti( OC4H9 )4 as raw material. The microstructure and forming mechanism of T/RE/TiO2 films were studied by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Effects of tourmaline on the photocatalytic activities of RE/TiO2 were determined by photocatalytic degradation of formaldehyde. The results show that the photocatalytic degradation ratio of formaldehyde increases by 44.2% with the composite films of Ce/TiO2 containing 0.04%tourmaline, more than that with the thin films of Ce/TiO2 under UV irradiation.