Solventless Preparation of Thoria and Its Inclusion into SiO2 and TiO2: A Luminescence and Photocatalysis Study.

Thoria was prepared using a solid-state method from the macromolecular precursor Chitosan·Th(NO3)4 (chitosan) and PS-co-4-PVP·Th(NO3)4 (PVP). The morphology and the average size of ThO2 depend of the chitosan and PS-co-4-PVP polymer forming the precursor. Their photoluminescent properties were investigated, finding a dependence of their intensity emission maxima, with the nature of the precursor polymer. The photocatalytic activity of ThO2 toward the degradation of methylene blue was measured for the first time, finding a degradation of about 66% in 300 min. The inclusion of ThO2 into SiO2 and TiO2 was achieved by the solid-state pyrolysis of the macromolecular composites Chitosan·Th(NO3)4//MO2 and PS-co-4-PVP·Th(NO3)4//MO2, MO2 = SiO2 or TiO2. The ThO2 exhibits a homogeneous dispersion inside the silica, showing sizes of about 40 and 50 nm for the chitosan and PVP polymer precursors, respectively. The luminescent properties of the ThO2/SiO2 and ThO2/TiO2 composites were also studied, finding a decrease in intensity when introducing the SiO2 or TiO2 matrices. The photocatalytic behavior to methylene blue degradation of ThO2 and their composites ThO2/SiO2 and ThO2/TiO2 was investigated for the first time, with them in the following order: ThO2 > ThO2/TiO2 > ThO2/SiO2.