Photocatalytic degradation in silver doped TiO2

Many intriguing ways have been identified to mitigate the low photocatalytic activity of Titanium dioxide (TiO2). One of the ways is to adulterate the structure of TiO2 with foreign substances like metals i.e., Ni2+, Zn2+, Cr3+ and Fe3+, which are having similar radii with Ti4+. In this study, the introduction of silver into the structure of TiO2 by Liquid Impregnation (LI) method with various mole fractions have been presented. Comparison has been made to degrade one model pollutant: Direct Blue 71 (DB71) by using both doped and undoped TiO2. Study was further supported by studying the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Enhancement in the photocatalytic degradation of the dye was observed with silver doped TiO2 at 2.0% mole fraction as compared to undoped TiO2. While studying the photoctalytic activity, the reaction mixture pH was kept unchanged with doped TiO2, wherein with undoped TiO2 demanded acidic pH to have more photocatalytic activity.