La(3+)’s Effect on the Surface (101) of Anatase for Methylene Blue Dye Removal, a DFT Study

Density functional theory (DFT) is a widely used method for studying matter at the quantum level. In this study, the surface (101) of TiO(2) (anatase phase) was considered to develop DFT calculations and explain the effect of lanthanum ion (La(3+)) on the electronic properties, adsorption capacity, and photocatalytic activity of this semiconductor. Due to the presence of the La(3+) ion, the bandgap energy value of La/TiO(2) (2.98 eV) was lower than that obtained for TiO(2) (3.21 eV). TDOS analysis demonstrated the presence of hybrid levels in La/TiO(2) composed mainly of O2p and La5d orbitals. The chemical nature of the La-O bond was estimated from PDOS analysis, Bader charge analysis, and ELF function, resulting in a polar covalent type, due to the combination of covalent and ionic bonds. In general, the adsorption of the methylene blue (MB) molecule on the surface (101) of La/TiO(2) was energetically more favorable than on the surface (101) of TiO(2). The thermodynamic stability of doping TiO(2) with lanthanum was deduced from the negative heat-segmentation values obtained. The evidence from this theoretical study supports the experimental results reported in the literature and suggests that the semiconductor La/TiO(2) is a potential catalyst for applications that require sunlight.