Impact of synthesis methods on nanosized silver modified titania photocatalysts

This work reports the synthesis and studies on photocatalytic activity of a material based on titanium oxide doped with silver. Two kinds of Ag-deposited TiO 2 were synthesized via soft chemical reduction (SCR) and photodeposition (PD) methods. The structure, composition and chemical properties of the obtained products were investigated by X-ray diffraction, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectra and Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy techniques. The photocatalytic oxidation activity in a course of removal and destruction of organic compounds such as methyl orange dye using Ag/TiO 2 hybrid material was studied. The results suggest that SCR synthesized Ag/TiO 2 exhibited better photocatalytic performance that that obtained by PD method. The relationship between the synthesis method and photocatalytic activity of synthesized Ag/TiO 2 was analyzed with a focus on the plasmonic photocatalysis of silver. When compared to PD method, the SCR produced more homogeneous and smaller silver particles with a better dispersion than photodeposition that results in a relative increase of material activity in the photocatalytic degradation of dye pollutant.