Effect of deposition of Ag on TiO2 nanoparticles on the photodegradation of Reactive Yellow-17

Nanoparticles of TiO2 were synthesized by sol-gel technique and the photodeposition of about 1% Ag on TiO2 particles was carried out. Ag-deposited TiO2 catalyst was characterised by XRD, TEM and UV-vis spectroscopy. The Ag-TiO2 Catalyst was evaluated for their photocatalytic activity towards the degradation of Reactive Yellow-17 (RY-17) under UV and visible tight irradiations. Then the results were compared with synthesized nano-TiO2 sol and P-25 Degussa and the enhanced degradation was obtained with Ag-deposited TiO2. This enhanced activity of Ag-TiO2 may be attributed to the trapping of conduction band electrons. The effect of initial dye concentration, pH and electron acceptors such as H2O2, K2S2O8 on the photocatalytic activity were studied and the results obtained were fitted with Langmuir-Hinshelwood model to study the degradation kinetics and discussed in detail. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.