Papers by Author: A.S. Divya

Abstract: Photocatalytically active TiO2 and silica doped TiO₂ (Si-TiO₂) synthesised using an aqueous sol-gel method and is characterised by particle size analysis, XRD, diffuse reflectance spectra and BET measurements. The photocatalytic analysis using methylene blue proved that the Si-TiO₂ possesses higher activity than pure TiO₂. This Si-TiO₂ having higher photo-catalytic activity was incorporated into white portland cement and this modified cement exhibited photo-catalytic activity as evaluated by using methylene blue degradation experiments. This novel work is considered to be useful for further development of self-cleaning cements. Moreover silica doped to TiO₂ improved surface area and thermal stability of anatase TiO₂ significantly. At 800 ^оC, 100 percentage anatase phase was obtained for Si-TiO₂ whereas pure TiO₂ showed 100 percentage rutile phase at the same temperature and surface aera of the Si-TiO₂ was 93 m²/g while pure TiO₂ showed only 2 m²/g.