Effect of 5d transition metals doping on the photocatalytic properties of rutile TiO 2

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to address the effects of 5d transition metals (TM) doping on the electronic structure properties of rutile TiO2, using both the modified Becke-Johnson (mBJ) and on-site hybrid functional. The calculations show that there is a reduction of band gap in almost all the investigated cases, except when TiO2is doped with Ta. Some of the investigated systems (Re, W, Os, Ir) exhibit pronounced spin polarization, mainly arising from the TM atoms. In addition, a large increase of band gap is observed, when switching from a 24-atoms to 48-atoms supercell, while further enlarging the supercell size doesn't affect the band gap significantly. Among the investigated transition metals, Pt and Ir are the best candidates for improving the photocatalytic properties of rutile TiO2through substitutional doping