scholarly journals Femtosecond Spectroscopy of Au Hot-Electron Injection into TiO2: Evidence for Au/TiO2 Plasmon Photocatalysis by Bactericidal Au Ions and Related Phenomena

Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Radzig ◽  
Olga Koksharova ◽  
Inessa Khmel ◽  
Vladimir Ivanov ◽  
Khursand Yorov ◽  
...  

In the present work, we provide evidence for visible light irradiation of the Au/TiO2 nanoparticles’ surface plasmon resonance band (SPR) leading to electron injection from the Au nanoparticles to the conduction band of TiO2. The Au/TiO2 SPR band is shown to greatly enhance the light absorption of TiO2 in the visible region. Evidence is presented for the light absorption by the Au/TiO2 plasmon bands leading to the dissolution of Au nanoparticles. This dissolution occurs concomitantly with the injection of the hot electrons generated by the Au plasmon into the conduction band of TiO2. The electron injection from the Au nanoparticles into TiO2 was followed by femtosecond spectroscopy. The formation of Au ions was further confirmed by the spectral shift of the transient absorption spectra of Au/TiO2. The spectral changes of the SPR band of Au/TiO2 nanoparticles induced by visible light were detected by spectrophotometer, and the morphological transformation of Au/TiO2 was revealed by electron microscopy techniques as well. Subsequently, the fate of the Au ions was sorted out during the growth and biofilm formation for some selected Gram-negative bacteria. This study compares the bactericidal mechanism of Au ions and Ag ions, which were found to be substantially different depending on the selected cell used as a probe.

Catalysts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
Hayette Benkhennouche-Bouchene ◽  
Julien G. Mahy ◽  
Cédric Wolfs ◽  
Bénédicte Vertruyen ◽  
Dirk Poelman ◽  
...  

TiO2 prepared by a green aqueous sol–gel peptization process is co-doped with nitrogen and zirconium to improve and extend its photoactivity to the visible region. Two nitrogen precursors are used: urea and triethylamine; zirconium (IV) tert-butoxide is added as a source of zirconia. The N/Ti molar ratio is fixed regardless of the chosen nitrogen precursor while the quantity of zirconia is set to 0.7, 1.4, 2, or 2.8 mol%. The performance and physico-chemical properties of these materials are compared with the commercial Evonik P25 photocatalyst. For all doped and co-doped samples, TiO2 nanoparticles of 4 to 8 nm of size are formed of anatase-brookite phases, with a specific surface area between 125 and 280 m2 g−1 vs. 50 m2 g−1 for the commercial P25 photocatalyst. X-ray photoelectron (XPS) measurements show that nitrogen is incorporated into the TiO2 materials through Ti-O-N bonds allowing light absorption in the visible region. The XPS spectra of the Zr-(co)doped powders show the presence of TiO2-ZrO2 mixed oxide materials. Under visible light, the best co-doped sample gives a degradation of p-nitrophenol (PNP) equal to 70% instead of 25% with pure TiO2 and 10% with P25 under the same conditions. Similarly, the photocatalytic activity improved under UV/visible reaching 95% with the best sample compared to 50% with pure TiO2. This study suggests that N/Zr co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles can be produced in a safe and energy-efficient way while being markedly more active than state-of-the-art photocatalytic materials under visible light.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (29) ◽  
pp. 7538-7542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guigao Liu ◽  
Tao Wang ◽  
Wei Zhou ◽  
Xianguang Meng ◽  
Huabin Zhang ◽  
...  

Semiconductor crystal facets are found to have significant effects on hot-electron transfer from Au nanoparticles to the semiconductor within plasmonic photocatalysts under visible-light irradiation, leading to facet-dependent photocatalysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio César González-Torres ◽  
Enrique Poulain ◽  
Víctor Domínguez-Soria ◽  
Raúl García-Cruz ◽  
Oscar Olvera-Neria

Anatase TiO2 presents a large bandgap of 3.2 eV, which inhibits the use of visible light radiation (λ > 387 nm) for generating charge carriers. We studied the activation of TiO2 (101) anatase with visible light by doping with C, N, S, and F atoms. For this purpose, density functional theory and the Hubbard U approach are used. We identify two ways for activating the TiO2 with visible light. The first mechanism is broadening the valence or conduction band; for example, in the S-doped TiO2 (101) system, the valence band is broadened. A similar process can occur in the conduction band when the undercoordinated Ti atoms are exposed on the TiO2 (101) surface. The second mechanism, and more efficient for activating the anatase, is to generate localized states in the gap: N-doping creates localized empty states in the bandgap. For C-doping, the surface TiO2 (101) presents a “cleaner” gap than the bulk TiO2, resulting in fewer recombination centers. The dopant valence electrons determine the number and position of the localized states in the bandgap. The formation of charge carriers with visible light is highly favored by the oxygen vacancies on TiO2 (101). The catalytic activity of C-doping using visible radiation can be explained by its high absorption intensity generated by oxygen vacancies on the surface. The intensity of the visible absorption spectrum of doped TiO2 (101) follows the order: C > N > F > S dopant.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuwen Cheng ◽  
Xiujuan Yu ◽  
Zipeng Xing ◽  
Lisha Yang

Anatase mesoporous titanium dioxide codoped with nitrogen and chlorine (N-Cl-TiO2) photocatalysts were synthesized through simple one-step sol-gel reactions in the presence of ammonium chloride. The resulting materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflection spectrum (UV-vis DRS). XRD results indicated that codoping with nitrogen and chlorine could effectively retard the phase transformation of TiO2from anatase to rutile and the growth of the crystallite sizes. XPS revealed that nitrogen and chlorine elements were incorporated into the lattice of TiO2through substituting the lattice oxygen atoms. DRS exhibited that the light absorption of N-Cl-TiO2in visible region was greatly improved. As a result, the band gap of TiO2was reduced to 2.12 eV. The photocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized TiO2was evaluated for the degradation of RhB and phenol under visible light irradiation. It was found that N-Cl-TiO2catalyst exhibited higher visible light photocatalytic activity than that of P25 TiO2and N-TiO2, which was attributed to the small crystallite size, intense light absorption in visible region, and narrow band gap.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravi Kamble ◽  
Smita Mahajan ◽  
Vijaya Puri ◽  
Harish Shinde ◽  
Kalayanrao Garadkar

TiO2 and Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) with totally extraordinary substance of Cu by exploitation hydrothermal method. The part immaculateness, morphology, molecule estimate, optical properties, and elemental composition of as-incorporated Cu-doped TiO2 NPs were investigated by numerous systematic methods. The XRD designs unveiled Cu-doped TiO2 NPs inside the part unadulterated anatase phase. The plane of (101) XRD and XPS results show the lucky doping of Cu2+ inside the TiO2 lattice. The optical edges of Cu-doped TiO2 demonstrated a transparent light absorption in visible region that assumes an essential part inside the photocatalytic action underneath characteristic daylight. Certain Cu2+ content shows least PL intensity that backings the decrease in recombination rate of charge species. In addition, to get a handle on photocatalytic action, we have tried Cu-doped TiO2 for the degradation of Malachite Green (MG) under visible light. A large portion of 85% degradation was found for Cu-doped TiO2 (1.71 wt.%) underneath daylight minimum of 180 min, severally, that is past that of TiO2 (53%). Also, the degradation of the MG was affirmed by measurement of the chemical oxygen demand of the photodegraded solution. These outcomes demonstrates that the Cu-doped TiO2 NPs are extremely productive for the photodegration of the MG.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 475-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Chen ◽  
X. F. Lei ◽  
M. Z. Xue

Pure anatase TiO2 photocatalysts with different Ag contents were prepared via a simple sol-gel method. The as-prepared anatase Ag-doped TiO2 photocatalysts were characterised by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra, photoluminescence spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermal gravity and differential thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy and N2 adsorption–desorption measurements (BET). Compared with pure TiO2, Ag-doped anatase TiO2 photocatalysts exhibited not only increases in light absorption in the visible region, the separation efficiency of electron–hole pairs and surface area, but also inhibition of the titania phase transition from anatase to rutile. Photoreduction results showed that Ag-doped anatase TiO2 photocatalysts have greatly improved photocatalytic activity, compared with pure TiO2, and the reduction of Cr(VI) under visible light irradiation was much higher than that of pure TiO2. The optimum Ag content was 1.0 mol%, which led to the complete reduction of Cr(VI) under visible light irradiation (λ > 420 nm) for 4 h. The enhanced photocatalytic activity was attributed to the synergic effect of the pure anatase structure, and the increased light absorption in the visible region, separation efficiency of electron–hole pairs and atomic ratio of Ag0:Ag2O.


Author(s):  
Yeonsig Nam ◽  
Hao Li ◽  
Jin Yong Lee

Nitrogen/fluorine doping of TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) serves to play an important role with regard to visible light absorption and charge carrier dynamics. However, it is largely unknown how nitrogen/fluorine doping...


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document