• Pliekhova, Olena
• Bazzo, Antonio
• Stangar, Urska Lavrencic
• Korte, Dorota
• Ramon Morante, Juan
• Andreu, Teresa
• Turner, Stuart
• Warwick, Michael E. A.
• Gasparotto, Alberto
• Barreca, Davide
• Carraro, Giorgio
• Maccato, Chiara
• Sada, Cinzia
• Van Tendeloo, Gustaaf

Abstract

hoto-activated processes have been widely recognized as cost-effective and environmentally friendly routes for both renewable energy generation and purification/cleaning technologies. We report herein on a plasma-assisted approach for the synthesis of Fe2O3-TiO2 nanosystems functionalized with Au nanoparticles. Fe2O3 nanostructures were grown by plasma enhanced-chemical vapor deposition, followed by the sequential sputtering of titanium and gold under controlled conditions, and final annealing in air. The target nanosystems were subjected to a thorough multi-technique characterization, in order to elucidate the interrelations between their chemico-physical properties and the processing conditions. Finally, the functional performances were preliminarily investigated in both sunlight-assisted H2O splitting and photocatalytic activity tests in view of self-cleaning applications. The obtained results highlight the possibility of tailoring the system behaviour and candidate the present Fe2O3-TiO2-Au nanosystems as possible multi-functional low-cost platforms for light-activated processes.

Topics

• nanoparticle
• nanocomposite
• gold
• titanium
• annealing
• chemical vapor deposition