Enhanced Photocatalytic Efficiency of TiO2 Membrane Decorated with Ag and Au Nanoparticles

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 8; no. 6; p. 945
• Main Authors: Gao, Yining, Zhang, Wenqin, Liu, Peng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2018
• Subjects: Ag decoration; Carbon content; Carbon dioxide; Conduction; Conduction bands; E coli; Efficiency; Electronics industry; Escherichia coli; Gold; Graphene; Light; Membranes; Metal particles; Metals; Morphology; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Nanotechnology; Nanowires; Noble metals; Organic carbon; Organic chemistry; Organic semiconductors; Oxidation; Particle size; Photocatalysis; photocatalyst; Photodegradation; Silver; Thin films; TiO2 membrane; Titanium dioxide; Ultraviolet radiation; visible light irradiation; United States > US; China
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app8060945

According to the research, photocatalysts with low photocatalytic efficiency degraded organics within a couple of hours, such as nitrogen-doped TiO2 thin film [11], TiO2 nanotubes [12] and BiOCl nanowire arrays [13]; high photocatalytic efficiency like that of BiOCl membranes could completely degrade RhB within 2 min under UV light [14]. The band gap of TiO2 is narrowed notably after doping with noble metals (Au, Ag, Pt) [18]. Because the noble metals have lower Fermi levels than TiO2, the photogenerated electrons of the conduction band will not recombine with the holes, but instead transfer to the noble metal particles on the surface of TiO2 [19,20,21,22]. [...]the noble metal NPs can more easily attract organic molecules than semiconductors. [...]the noble metal NPs play the role of the electron carrier in the system of TiO2 doped with noble metals, which is an effective method to improve the photocatalytic properties of TiO2. [...]the RhB was degraded into small molecules, such as CO2, NOx and H2O, and finally, oxidized completely, with the organic carbon content decreased significantly [34,35,36].