Visible light induced enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in aqueous media using Ag doped hollow TiO2 nanospheres

The silver doped hollow TiO2 (Ag-h-TiO2) nanoparticles were synthesized by a sacrificial core (AgBr) method. The Ag doping and the core removal was done simultaneously during the dissolution of the core in (NH4)OH solution. The mean particle size of synthesized Ag-h-TiO2 nanoparticles is 17.76 +/- 2.85 nm with a wall thickness of similar to 2.5 nm. The hollow structured nanoparticles have 103.2 m(2) g(-1) more specific surface area compared to solid TiO2 nanoparticles. The suitability of these synthesized hollow nanoparticles as photocatalyst were tested for the photocatalytic degradation of three important different classes of organic compounds such as nitrobenzene (NB), metronidazole (MTZ) antibiotic, and methylene blue dye (MBD) in aqueous solution under irradiation of visible light. Photodegradation studies show there is a significant enhancement of the degradation efficiency of the TiO2 after the hollow structure formation and silver doping. The recycling tests of the catalysts show only similar to 10% decrease in efficiency for NB and MTZ degradation after sixth cycle of reuse. The light emission capacity in terms of quantum yield (QY) is enhanced by 18.7% for Ag-h-TiO2 than that of pure TiO2 nanoparticles.