Degradation of Rhodamine B by Highly Efficient Photocatalyst TiO₂-Ag/Ag⁺ under Simulated Sunlight Irradiation

Abstract:

nanosized Ag/Ag₃PO₄ doped titanium dioxide (TiO₂) particulates (TiO₂-Ag/Ag₃PO₄) were synthesized by sol-gel process. TiO₂-Ag/Ag₃PO₄ was used to coat on the glass tubes interfaces to investigate the photocatalytic effect against Rhodamine B under simulated solar light. The calcination temperature and time, number of coating layers, dopant ratio of Ag was optimized. It is noted that the photocatalytic effect under simulated solar was 99.8% only for 60min, which is much higher than pure TiO₂. The hybrid material was characterized using X-ray diffractometer (XRD), SEM and UV–vis spectroscopy (UV–vis). By the result, it is noticed that pure Ag and Ag₃PO₄ particles were combined with TiO₂ nanoparticles, and TiO₂-Ag/Ag₃PO₄ thin film exhibited significantly better photocatalytic effect due to its narrow band gap energy (2.26 eV) and higher visible light absorbing ability. The stability of TiO₂-Ag/Ag₃PO₄ material was also investigated.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 1051)
• Pages: 112-116
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1051.112
• Online since: October 2014
• Authors: Ying Nan Yang*, Qi Zhu, Da Wei Li, Xiao Hong Hu
• Keywords: Degradation, Photocatalysis, Solar Light, Thin Film, TiO₂-Ag/Ag₃PO₄

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