Photocatalytic activity of silver-modified titanium dioxide at solid–liquid and solid–gas interfaces

Abstract

Silver-modified titania samples (Ag-TiO 2 ) with varying silver content (0.1-1.0 wt%) were prepared. Silver-modification of titanium dioxide was examined by TEM, XRD, XPS and DR-UV-vis spectroscopy. Ag or AgO x particles on TiO 2 surface could not be observed by XRD and TEM investigation, however the color of the Ag-TiO 2 samples varied between light rose and purple-brown. XPS measurements revealed that silver exists mainly in oxide form. The photocatalytic activity of pure and Ag-TiO 2 samples were compared both in solid-liquid and in solid-gas interfaces. In the liquid phase the 2,2 -thiodiethanol was used as test molecule. Ethanol photodegradation was examined in gas phase at dry initial condition. It was shown that the rate of photooxidation of organic compounds significantly enhanced by silver-modification of titania.

Modification of TiO2 with hBN: high temperature anatase phase stabilisation and photocatalytic degradation of 1,4-dioxane

“…The use of chemical modifiers/dopants is one method of addressing the low transition temperature and issues regarding photocatalysis in TiO 2 . One type of doping involves the use of metal dopants such as iron [21][22][23][24], silver [15,25], chromium [26], copper [22,27,28], and manganese [29][30][31] or metal oxides such as Al 2 O 3 , SiO 2 and ZnO [11,14,[32][33][34]. However, as noted by Byrne et al the use of metal dopants can result in the formation of impurities at elevated temperatures which can have a negative impact on the transition temperature and photocatalytic activity [14,20,35].…”

Graphite Oxide-TiO2 Nanocomposite Type Photocatalyst for Methanol Photocatalytic Reforming Reaction

“…Since Fujishima's and Honda's pioneering work in 1972 [5], there has been a continuously growing interest in TiO 2 as a photocatalyst because of its efficiency, long term stability, cheapness and low toxicity [6][7][8][9]. Although TiO 2 is a good candidate for photocatalyst in general, especially in degradation of organic pollutants both in gas phase [7,10] and in liquid phase [7,[11][12][13] bare TiO 2 (in the absence of metal co-catalyst) results only in poor H 2 evolution in reaction (1) [14,15]. The activity of TiO 2 in the hydrogen producing reaction can be increased at least by an order of magnitude when a proper co-catalyst is involved [16][17][18].…”

Photocatalytic Activity of Vis-Responsive Ag-Nanoparticles/TiO2 Composite Thin Films Fabricated by Molecular Precursor Method (MPM)

“…Pure TiO 2 shows the smallest change, while COMP-Ag70 shows the largest change. Kőrösi et al showed that the rate of photooxidation of organic compounds was significantly enhanced by silver-modification of titania [39].…”