A series of titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalysts doped with H3PW12O40 were synthesized by sol-gel method using tetrabutyltitanate [Ti(OC4H9)4] and H3PW12O40 as precursors. The as-prepared photocatalyst was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD)

scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-vis adsorption spectroscopy. The adsorption performances and photocatalytic activities of the prepared samples were estimated by measuring the adsorption and degradation rate of methyl blue (MB) in an aqueous solution. The results of MB adsorption showed that H3PW12O40-doped TiO2 exhibited higher adsorption performance than pure TiO2 and the adsorption isotherm of MB on photocatalyst could be described better by Langmuir equation than Freundlich equation. The effects of catalyst dosage and H3PW12O40-doped content on the photocatalytic degradation of MB were studied. It was shown that the H3PW12O40-doped TiO2 had a stronger absorption and could thus be used as an effective catalyst in photo-oxidation reactions. In addition

the possibility of cyclic usage of H3PW12O40-doped TiO2 was also confirmed. The photocatalytic activity of the photocatalyst remained was above 88% of that of the fresh sample after being used four times.