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Visible light activity of Ag-loaded and guanidine nitrate-doped nano-TiO2: Degradation of dichlorophenol and antibacterial properties
Citation:
Virkutyte, J. AND R. S. VARMA. Visible light activity of Ag-loaded and guanidine nitrate-doped nano-TiO2: Degradation of dichlorophenol and antibacterial properties. RSC Advances. RSC Publishing, Cambridge, Uk, 2(4):1533 -1539, (2012).
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
To utilize visible light, co-doped nano-TiO2 was prepared via “one pot” synthesis using mild reaction conditions and benign precursors. Synthesis was optimized using an appropriate experimental design taking into account silver content and calcination temperature. The optimized nanocatalyst was characterized by XRD, BET, TEM, TGA, XPS, as well as UV-DRS. Nanocatalysts were predominantly anatase as confirmed by XRD, thermally stable up to 1100 oC as revealed by TGA studies and exhibited absorption in the visible light region as verified by UV-DRS analysis. Moreover, XPS results proved that Ag was dispersed on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles and nitrogen as well as carbon from guanidine nitrate was interlaced into the matrix of TiO2. Co-doping of TiO2 suppressed charge recombination and improved the visible light photo-activity up to the complete degradation of dichlorophenol (DCP) in 4 hours of the reaction. Degradation followed first order reaction kinetics with kapp ranging from 1.1 to as high as 15.1 × 10-3 min-1 depending on the silver content and calcination temperature. Demineralization of the solution in terms of TOC was up to 92 %. A complete elimination of Vibrio fischeri was already accomplished with 1 mg L-1 of nanocatalyst regardless the Ag content in the nanocatalyst.
