Preparation of Ag/TiO2 Nanotube and Its Photocatalytic Performance

Abstract:

Ag nanoparticles were deposited photocatalytically on the TiO2 nanotube surface prepared by anodizing in an electrolyte of AgNO3 and characterized by XRD, SEM and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The results show that the Ag particles (from 10 ~120 nm in size) are deposited on the TiO2 nanotube surface un-uniformly as Ag0 and Ag particles, showing a good chemical stability. The photo-degradation rate of mathylene blue solution increases as the content of Ag loaded on nanotube surface increase. If the content is greater then the most optimally content, the photo-degradation rate will decrease. It is shown that the photo-degradation rate is the highest when the content of Ag is about 1.15%. The Ag loaded nanotubes have much higher photo-degradation rate of about 22.98% than un-loaded nanotubes. The degradation rate is about 100% after UV irradiation of mathylene blue solution of 10×10-6mol/L for 3 h

Key words:anodic oxidation; TiO2 nanotube; Ag doping; photocatalysis