Ag-doped TiO2 Nanophotocatalyst Synthesized by DC Reactive Magnetron Co-Sputtering

What is it about?

In this work, silver-doped titanium dioxide (Ag-doped TiO2) nanostructures synthesized by a dc reactive magnetron co-sputtering technique at different concentrations of gas mixing ratio (Ar:O2). The structural and spectroscopic characteristics of the prepared samples were introduced by x-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-visible spectroscopy. The XRD results reveal that all samples have anatase phase of tetragonal system. The functional groups of these samples were identified by FTIR. The shift in absorption edge to longer wavelength (from 387.5 to 418.9 nm) and higher absorption in the visible light region were observed. The results of photodegradation of the organic pollutant (meth¬ylene blue) using visible light irradiation (λ>400nm) suggest that the TiO2 photocatalyst was highly improved after doped with silver as compared with the undoped TiO2 photocatalyst.

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Why is it important?

In summary, anatase titanium dioxide nanostructures doped with silver was synthesized using DC reactive magnetron co-sputtering technique. The average crystallite size of Ag-doped TiO2 nanoparticles was found to be 8 nm. Silver dopants caused the energy band gap of anatase TiO2 nanostructures to decrease from 3.20 to 2.96 eV and hence to shift their absorption edge towards visible region of electromagnetic spectrum. Doping of anatase titanium dioxide nanostructures with silver can enhance the photocatalytic activity of such nanostructures as photocatalysts, in the presence of visible radiation, where the Ag-doped TiO2 showed the higher degradation of the MB dye then undoped TiO2.

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