Effective photocatalytic efficacy of hydrothermally synthesized silver phosphate decorated titanium dioxide nanocomposite fibers

Hierarchical Ag3PO4/TiO2 nanocomposite fibers were prepared by combining electrospinning technique and hydro-thermal growth method. As-synthesized samples were characterized by using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Photoluminescence (PL), and Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The FE-SEM image revealed a uniform decoration of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles without aggregation on primary TiO2 nano-fibers. The photocatalytic and antibacterial studies were performed and results were shown that the Ag3PO4/TiO2 nanocomposite fibers show an enhanced photocatalytic and antibacterial activity toward the degradation of dye methylene blue and bacteria (Escherichia coil, Staphylococcus aureus) respectively. Our results can provide new insights of Ag3PO4/TiO2 nanocomposite fibers for the potential applications in antibacterial and waste water treatment. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.