An Experimental and Theoretical Study on the Effect of Silver Nanoparticles Concentration on the Structural, Morphological, Optical, and Electronic Properties of TiO2 Nanocrystals

In this work, pure and silver (Ag)-loaded TiO2 nanocrystals (NCs) with various concentrations of Ag were prepared by soft chemical route and the effect of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) on the functional properties of TiO2 was studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman studies confirmed that the synthesized product had single-phase nature and high crystalline quality. The crystallite size was decreased from 18.3 nm to 13.9 nm with the increasing in concentration of Ag in TiO2 NCs. FESEM micrographs showed that the pure and AgNPs-loaded TiO2 have spherical morphology and uniform size distribution with the size ranging from 20 to 10 nm. Raman spectroscopy performed on pure and AgNPs-loaded TiO2 confirms the presence of anatase phase and AgNPs. Optical properties show the characteristics peaks of TiO2 and the shifting of the peaks position was observed by changing the concentration of Ag. The tuning of bandgap was found to be observed with the increase in Ag, which could be ascribed to the synergistic effect between silver and TiO2 NCs. Density functional theory calculations are carried out for different Ag series of doped TiO2 lattices to simulate the structural and electronic properties. The analysis of the electronic structures show that Ag loading induces new localized gap states around the Fermi level. Moreover, the introduction of dopant states in the gap region owing to Ag doping can be convenient to shift the absorption edge of pristine TiO2 through visible light.

Raman and Photoluminescence Spectroscopy with a Variable Spectral Resolution

Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy are important analytic tools in materials science that yield information on molecules’ and crystals’ vibrational and electronic properties. Here, we show results of a novel approach for Raman and PL spectroscopy to exploit variable spectral resolution by using zoom optics in a monochromator in the front of the detector. Our results show that the spectral intervals of interest can be recorded with different zoom factors, significantly reducing the acquisition time and changing the spectral resolution for different zoom factors. The smallest spectral intervals recorded at the maximum zoom factor yield higher spectral resolution suitable for Raman spectra. In contrast, larger spectral intervals recorded at the minimum zoom factor yield the lowest spectral resolution suitable for luminescence spectra. We have demonstrated the change in spectral resolution by zoom objective with a zoom factor of 6, but the perspective of such an approach is up to a zoom factor of 20. We have compared such an approach on the prototype Raman spectrometer with the high quality commercial one. The comparison was made on ZrO2 and TiO2 nanocrystals for Raman scattering and Al2O3 for PL emission recording. Beside demonstrating that Raman spectrometer can be used for PL and Raman spectroscopy without changing of grating, our results show that such a spectrometer could be an efficient and fast tool in searching for Raman and PL bands of unknown materials and, thereafter, spectral recording of the spectral interval of interest at an appropriate spectral resolution.

Octahedral Shaped PbTiO3-TiO2 Nanocomposites for High-Efficiency Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

In this work, octahedral shaped PbTiO3-TiO2 nanocomposites have been synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method, where perovskite ferroelectric PbTiO3 nanooctahedra were employed as substrate. The microstructures of the composites were investigated systemically by using XRD, SEM, TEM and UV-Vis spectroscopy. It was revealed that anantase TiO2 nanocrystals with a size of about 5 nm are dispersed on the surface of the {111} facets of the nanooctahedron crystals. Photocatalytic hydrogen production of the nanocomposites has been evaluated in a methanol alcohol-water solution under UV light enhanced irradiation. The H2 evolution rate of the nanocomposites increased with an increased loading of TiO2 on the nanooctahedra. The highest H2 evolution rate was 630.51 μmol/h with the highest concentration of TiO2 prepared with 2 mL tetrabutyl titanate, which was about 36 times higher than that of the octahedron substrate. The enhanced photocatalytic reactivity of the nanocomposites is possibly ascribed to the UV light absorption of the nanooctahedral substrates, efficient separation of photo-generated carriers via the interface and the reaction on the surface of the TiO2 nanocrystals.

Controllable One-Step Synthesis of Mixed-Phase TiO2 Nanocrystals with Equivalent Anatase/Rutile Ratio for Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance

In this study, the novel mixed-phase TiO2 nanocrystals (s-TiO2) with nearly equivalent anatase/rutile ratio were fabricated in the reagent of sec-butanol at the relatively low temperature of 80 °C by using a facile one-step condensing reflux method. The photocatalytic water splitting hydrogen production performance of s-TiO2 nanocrystals is close to that of commercial TiO2 (P25), and its photocatalytic degradation performance is about four times that of P25. The energy-level staggered interfaces and surface bridged hydroxyl groups significantly increased due to the anatase/rutile mixed-phase crystal structure and high specific surface area, which might generate the synergistic effect for the improvement of photocatalytic degradation.