The recent research on semiconductor photocatalysis reveals that the uni/multi nano heterojunction composites shows superior photocatalytic performance compared to the pristine one. Moreover, it has been reported that the use of alcoholic solvents has significant influence in the phase formation and thereby on the photocatalytic performance. The present work reports the synthesis of titania using sol gel technique employing different alcohol solvents. The samples were analysed using structural, surface and optical characterisation techniques. The structural analysis confirms the high crystalline nature of the samples along with its nanoscale size distribution. The titania samples synthesised with ethanol and propanol solvents exhibit mixed phase and the sample synthesized with butanol solvent showed pure anatase phase which agrees with the earlier reports revealing the role of length of the carbon chain of the solvent on phase transformation. The surface characterization reveals the formation of nano agglomerates in all the cases. Photoluminescence analyses of the samples were also carried out to identify the trap levels in the samples. The photocatalytic activities of the samples were performed under U-V irradiation with the probe pollutant methylene blue. All the three samples showed good photocatalytic performance compared to the commercial photocatalyst Degussa P25. The titania sample synthesized using ethanol solvent showed superior photocatalytic activity compared to other samples. The superior photocatalytic performance of the ethanol based titania sample maybe attributed to the efficient separation of the charge carrier at the anatase-rutile nano heterojunction of the mixed phase titania along with high surface area. This study reveals that the nature of the solvent for the sol gel synthesis have a substantial influence in the physico-chemical and photocatalytic performance of titania.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
29 October 2019
PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCED MATERIALS: ICAM 2019
12–14 June 2019
Kerala, India
Research Article|
October 29 2019
Role of alcohol solvents on physico-chemical characteristics and photocatalytic performance of titania
S. K. Nikhil;
S. K. Nikhil
Solar Energy Materials Research and Testing Laboratory (SMaRT Lab), Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Silchar
, Assam-788010, India
Search for other works by this author on:
G. Nair Ranjith
G. Nair Ranjith
a)
Solar Energy Materials Research and Testing Laboratory (SMaRT Lab), Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Silchar
, Assam-788010, India
a)Corresponding author: rgnair2007@gmail.com
Search for other works by this author on:
a)Corresponding author: rgnair2007@gmail.com
AIP Conf. Proc. 2162, 020092 (2019)
Citation
S. K. Nikhil, G. Nair Ranjith; Role of alcohol solvents on physico-chemical characteristics and photocatalytic performance of titania. AIP Conf. Proc. 29 October 2019; 2162 (1): 020092. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5130302
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
27
Views
Citing articles via
The effect of a balanced diet on improving the quality of life in malignant neoplasms
Yu. N. Melikova, A. S. Kuryndina, et al.
Animal intrusion detection system using Mask RCNN
C. Vijayakumaran, Dakshata, et al.
Recognition of cat ras of face and body using convolutional neural networks
Akhmad Wahyu Aji, Esmeralda Contessa Djamal, et al.
Related Content
Augmented photocatalytic activity and luminescence response of Tb3+ doped nanoscale titania systems
J. Appl. Phys. (October 2014)
Role of carbon in titania as visible-light photocatalyst prepared by flat-flame chemical vapor condensation method
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A (June 2009)
Improvement of catalytic activity of Fe3O4/CuO/TiO2 nanocomposites using the combination of ultrasonic and UV light irradiation for degradation of organic dyes
AIP Conference Proceedings (April 2016)
Sol-gel formed spherical nanostructured titania based liquefied petroleum gas sensor
AIP Conference Proceedings (May 2018)
Tuning the photocatalytic performance of Degussa P25 through phase ratio optimization
AIP Conf. Proc. (October 2019)