• Roy, Dipali
• Maity, Jayeta
• Bala, Tanushree
• Singha, Pintu
• Banerjee, Aritra

Abstract

<jats:p>The catalytic activity of a material had been dependent on the nature of the matrix. To address this issue, a detailed study was aimed. TiO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> nanoparticles were fabricated with an unusual anatase crystal phase and an interesting porous morphology. The development of porosity in TiO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> was skillfully achieved by using hexamine during the synthesis, followed by its selective removal by calcination at an optimum temperature. The route was found to be template‐free, green and thoroughly reproducible. Surface of the as prepared TiO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> was modified with oleic acid (OA) expecting an interaction between Lewis acidic TiO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> and electron‐rich OA. This modification enabled adhesion of Ag nanoparticles on TiO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> surface, because OA had already been reported as an effective capping agent for Ag nanoparticles. A comparison was made between the photocatalytic activities of TiO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> and TiO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>‐Ag nanocomposites. This was further compared with commercial variety of TiO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>. A very interesting trend was observed establishing that porous morphology of the nanoparticles could boost photocatalytic activities toward dye degradation in water medium. All the samples were systematically characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, XPS, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, and Transmission Electron Microscopy.</jats:p>

Topics

• nanoparticle
• porous
• nanocomposite
• surface
• phase
• x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• transmission electron microscopy
• porosity
• Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy