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Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received March 13, 2025
Revised July 25, 2025
Accepted August 13, 2025
Available online October 25, 2025

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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TiO 2 Nanoparticles with Mixed Anatase–Rutile Phase Structure Doped with Diff erent Concentrations of Iron for Photocatalytic Activity in Degrading Methylene Blue

Paulus Lobo Gareso Heryanto Heryanto^† Sri Suryani Dahlang Tahir Paulina Taba¹ Didik Aryanto² Muh Ade Artasasta³

Department of Physics , Universitas Hasanuddin ¹Department of Chemistry , Universitas Hasanuddin ²Research Centre for Advanced Materials , National Research and Innovation Agency KST BJ Habibie ³Department of Applied Science , Universitas Negeri Malang

heryanto@science.unhas.ac.id

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, October 2025, 42(12), 2951-2966(16)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-025-00539-5

Abstract

The photodegradation of Fe-doped anatase-rutile mixed-phase TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) under visible light to degrade methylene

blue has been studied. TiO 2 NPs were successfully synthesized using the co-precipitation method. These nanoparticles

were characterized using XRD, UV–Vis, FTIR, FESEM, HRTEM, and EDX. The XRD analysis revealed that the diff raction

patterns exhibited two-phase structures, namely, anatase and rutile phase structures, where the intensity of the rutile phase

structures was greater than that of the anatase phase structures. The UV–Vis result indicated a reduction of the band-gap

energy of the Fe-TiO 2 NPs. FESEM micrographs revealed that agglomerations formed clusters, and SEM results showed that

the nanoparticles aggregate to create surface structures resembling edelweiss fl owers. Based on Kramers–Kronig analysis,

there is a reduction in optical phonon (Δ(LO − TO)) cm −1 diff erence with a decrease in the rutile fraction as a function of

Fe. The reduction in the rutile phase fraction correlated with a decrease in photocatalytic activity, indicating that the rutile

phase plays a crucial role in the photodegradation process (1wt% achieved. k ads rate: 0.00273 min −1 ). These results suggest

that Fe-doped anatase–rutile mixed-phase TiO 2 nanoparticles are suitable as photocatalysts.

Keywords

Fe-TiO 2 nanoparticles · Photocatalysts · Anatase phase