Preparation, Characterization and Evaluations of Carbon-Doped Ag/Fe/TiO₂ Mesoporous Nanocomposite Photocatalyst for Degradation of Methylene Blue and Congo Red

J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2021 Oct 1;21(10):5344-5351. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2021.19331.

Abstract

Carbon doped silver/iron/TiO₂ nanocomposite is synthesized via the solvothermal technique. Titanium tetraisopropoxide is used as a TiO₂ source. The composite samples are characterized by different physicochemical methods, including nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis, transmission electron microscope, scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, UV-vis, Fourier-transform infrared, and Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The nanocrystalline structure of the samples with anatase phase having a tetragonal shape is shown by the XRD and TEM analysis. The photo-absorption boundary of pure TiO₂ expands into the visible light region due to composite formation, shown by analysis of UV-vis data. An increase in the degree of electron-hole couple segregation is shown via photoluminescence analysis. N₂ adsorption-desorption analysis manifests the higher surface area of samples along with mesoporous nature. The high photodegradation action is shown by the composite samples as compared to pure mesoporous TiO₂.