Abstract

Ruchi Nandanwar¹, Purnima Singh¹, Fazil F. Syed² and Fozia Z. Haque^3*

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/ojc/300417

The study presents that the TiO₂/SiO₂ nanocomposite particles were prepared from using TTIP precursor for titania and TEOS precursor for silica, by using a sol-gel method at low temperature in acidic pH with various templates: poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and Triton X-100 (TX-100). The properties of resulting Ti/Si nanocomposites materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy; Photo-Luminescence spectra and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) techniques. The results show that the TS cores were uniformly coated by Triton X-100 exhibited regular morphology and having spherical nanoparticles. XRD result showed that TS:T_X  having smaller crystallite size than the TS:T_X  nanocomposite particles and in both samples only include anatase phase. The UV–Vis spectrum of as-synthesized samples shows absorption in the visible range. The PL emission intensity of TS:T_X  nanocomposite was slightly decreased compared with TS:P_EG  nanocomposite due to decrease in recombination rate. From FTIR results metal oxide stretching was confirmed in both the samples. The photocatalytic activity of samples was tested for degradation of methylene blue (MB) solutions. The results clearly showed that TS coated Triton X-100 sample exhibited higher activity than that of TS:P_EG  under UV irradiation, due to the low recombination rate of photo-generated electrons and holes.

TiO2/SiO2; nanocomposite; sol-gel method; non-ionic surfactants; morphology; optical properties; XRD; FT-IR

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