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This study investigates the effect of the diameter of TiO nanotubes and silver decorated nanotubes on optical properties and photocatalytic inactivation of Escherichia coli under visible light. The TiO nanotubes (TiO-NTs) were prepared using the electrochemical method varying the anodization potential starting from 20 V until 70 V. The Ag nanoparticles were carried out using the photoreduction process under the same experimental conditions. The diameter size was determined using the scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). TiO-NTs diameter reached ∼100 nm at 70 V. Transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) imaging confirmed the TiO-NTs surface decoration by silver nanoparticles. The Ag-NPs average size was found to be equal to 8 nm. The X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirm that all TiO-NTs crystallize in the anatase phases regardless the used anodization potential. The decrease of the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of Ag NPs decorated TiO-NTs indicates the decrease of the specific area when the nanotubes diameter increases. The UV-vis absorbance show that the absorption edges was bleu shifted with the increasing of nanotubes diameter, which can be explained by the increase of the crystallites average size. The bacterial adhesion and inactivation tests were carried in the dark and under light. Bacteria were seen to adhere on TiO-NTs in the dark; however, under light the bacteria were killed before they establish a strong contact with the TiO-NTs and Ag/TiO-NTs surfaces. Bacterial inactivation kinetics were faster when the anodizing potential of the NTs-preparation increases. A total bacterial inactivation was obtained on ∼100 nm nanotubes diameter within 90 min. This result was attributed to the enhancement of the TNTs crystallinity leading to reduced surface defects. Redox catalysis was seen to occur under light on the TiO-NTs and Ag/TiO-NTs. the photo-induced antibacterial activity on the AgO/AgO decorated TiO-NTs was attributed to the interfacial charge transfer mechanism (IFCT).

Tin oxide (SnO2) ultrathin films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) onto SiO2/Si and quartz substrates, at various nominal thicknesses ranging from isolated nanoparticles (NPs) to ∼300 nm-thick films, under an oxygen background pressure of 10 mTorr. The microstructural and surface morphologies of the NP-based SnO2 films were characterized by x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy, as a function of their nominal film thickness. The PLD-SnO2 films were found to be composed of NPs (in the 1–6 nm range), whose size increases with the film thickness. The energy band gap, as determined from the absorption edge, was found to shift to higher values with decreasing the film thickness (i.e., decreasing the NPs size). It was found that an annealing at 700 °C under O2 ambient is a prerequisite to get a photoluminescence (PL) emission from the PLD-SnO2 films. The PL of the annealed SnO2 films was found to consist of two broad emission bands, regardless of the SnO2 film thickness. The first band is composed of 3 PL subbands peaking at 3.20, 3.01, and 2.90 eV, while the second one is centered on 2.48 eV. In spite of the observed band-gap widening (as confirmed by theoretical calculation), we show that surface state (e.g., oxygen vacancies) dominate completely the PL emission of SnO2 NPs, which becomes more luminescent as the NPs size decreases while the PL energy remains unchanged. The PL properties of the PLD-SnO2 NPs are discussed in terms of defects and/or oxygen vacancies related transitions.

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Preparation and characterization of Cu2O-NPs decorated TiO2 nanotubes.  Cu2O-NPs/TiO2-NTs has greatest photocatalytic performance under UV-Visible light irradiation.  Simultaneous removal of E. coli and Butane-2, 3-Dione (BUT) was studied.  Mechanism of the photocatalytic activities is suggested.

This work deals with the deposition of Cr-doped TiO2 thin films on porous silicon (PS) prepared from electrochemical anodization of multicrystalline (mc-Si) Si wafers. The effect of Cr doping on the properties of the TiO2-Cr/PS/Si samples has been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microcopy (AFM), photoluminescence, lifetime, and laser beam-induced current (LBIC) measurements. The photocatalytic activity is carried out on TiO2-Cr/PS/Si samples. It was found that the TiO2-Cr/PS/mc-Si type structure degrades an organic pollutant (amido black) under ultraviolet (UV) light. A noticeable degradation of the pollutant is obtained for a Cr doping of 2 at. %. This result is discussed in light of LBIC and photoluminescence measurements.

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