IMPACT OF SILVER DOPANT ON STRUCTURAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF TiO2 NANOPARTICLES

摘要

Pure and silver doped Agx(TiO2)1-x nanoparticles (NPs) with x= 1wt%, 3wt%, 5wt% and 7wt% were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The effect of silver concentration on structural and optical properties of Agx(TiO2)1-x nanoparticles was investigated using XRD, SEM, UV-Visible, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy. XRD results revealed that TiO2 crystalline in two phases: anatase and rutile, and crystallite size varies from 31.15 nm to 7.01nm. SEM analysis indicated that shape of silver-doped NPs become regular, homogeneous with less agglomeration. UV-Visible analysis indicated that as the silver content increases, cut off wavelength (absorption) increases while band gap decreases from 3.78~ 2.89 eV. This shift from ultraviolet to visible region, which may enhance its photocatalytic activity. FTIR peaks verified that IR spectra of pure and Ag-doped TiO2 nanoparticles remained unaltered. Raman spectroscopy illustrated that there was blue shift in peaks for Ag-doped TiO2 nanoparticles. From all these results, it was determined that Ag-doped TiO2 nanoparticles showed better structural and optical properties as compared to pure TiO2 which is much suitable for photocatalytic activity.