Abstract:

Titanium dioxide shows a tremendous potential for the decomposition of organic pollutants under UV and visible light irradiation. In this study TiO2 nanospheres @ mesoporous silica nanospheres (TiO2@SiO2) photocatalyst was synthesized by the sol-gel method. The synthesized TiO2/SiO2 photocatalyst was decorated by Ag nanoparticle. The decorated TiO2@SiO2–Ag photocatalyst by a hydrothermal method was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The SEM results show that TiO2@SiO2–Ag nanospheres photocatalyst was uniformly formed. The EDS analysis proves that the nanospheres photocatalyst consists of Ti, Si, O and Ag. The TiO2@SiO2–Ag nanospheres photocatalyst exhibited better photocatalytic performance for degradation of methylene blue under direct UV illumination.    

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