Investigation of the Photocatalytic Activity of TiO2 after Neutron Irradiation

This work focused on the investigation of titanium dioxide (TiO2) modified with magnesium (Mg) and aluminum (Al) ions (0.5–2%) before and after neutron irradiation. The influence of irradiation on the morphological and optical characteristics of the samples was evaluated using scanning and transmission electron microscopy, as well as UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The resulting photocatalysts were tested for the degradation of methylene blue under UV irradiation. The photocatalytic tests demonstrated a maximum methylene blue removal efficiency of 98.3% for the TiO2:Al–0.5% sample after 1 h of neutron irradiation. These results demonstrate that the Mg/Al modification and neutron irradiation can influence the photocatalytic properties of modified TiO2, highlighting the potential of this approach for future environmental applications.