Synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic behavior of Ag doped TiO2 thin film

• Published in: Superlattices and microstructures 2015-09, Vol.85, p.255-265
• Main Authors: Bensouici, F., Souier, T., Dakhel, A.A., Iratni, A., Tala-Ighil, R., Bououdina, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Microstructure; Photocatalyst; Sol–gel growth; Surface properties; Thin films
• ISSN: 0749-6036; 1096-3677
• DOI: 10.1016/j.spmi.2015.05.028

•A simple wet chemical route to obtain thin layers of Ag doped TiO2.•Detailed structure analysis was carried out by Rietveld refinements.•Low percentage of Ag doped TiO2 shows great efficiency in the degradation rate of Rhodamine B.•A surplus of doping Ag NPs of TiO2 thin films decreases their efficiency photocatalysis. In this study, structure, microstructure, optical properties and photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) have been investigated in an aqueous heterogeneous media containing pure and Ag doped TiO2 nanostructures thin films which were prepared by a simple sol–gel route. Thermal analysis demonstrated that Ag content decreased the temperature of anatase-to-rutile phase transformation. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that the prepared nanostructures crystallize within anatase-type structure and that the dopant Ag ions were not fully incorporated within TiO2 host lattice, meanwhile both the refractive index and optical band gap were affected by Ag concentration. The photodegradation of Rhodamine B under UV-C radiation by using pure and Ag-doped TiO2 nanostructures showed that Ag played an important role in a significant improvement of the photodegradation efficiency and that the optimum content of Ag ions was found to be 0.5% molar ratio.