One-pot Synthesis of Carbon-doped TiO2 with Bimetallic Ni-Ag co-catalysts in Photodegradation of Methylene Blue under UV and Visible Irradiation

Kurnia Putri (Department of Chemistry, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani Km 36 Banjarbaru 70714)
Annisa Annisa (Department of Chemistry, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani Km 36 Banjarbaru 70714)
Sadang Husain (Department of Physics, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani Km 36 Banjarbaru 70714)
Rodiansono Rodiansono (Department of Chemistry, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani Km 36 Banjarbaru 70714)

Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis
2020: BCREC Volume 15 Issue 1 Year 2020 (April 2020)

Carbon modified-titanium dioxide (@C-TiO2) was prepared by one-pot procedure from TiCl4 and glucose under hydrothermal conditions at 150 ºC for 24 hours. The obtained @C-TiO2 was employed as support for Ni-Ag(3.0)@C-TiO2 nanocomposite (3.0 is the Ni/Ag molar ratio). The synthesized catalysts were characterized by means of XRD and UV-Vis DRS Spectroscopy. The XRD patterns of @TiO2 show the brookite as the main phase, meanwhile the main phase in the @C-TiO2, Ni-Ag(3.0)@TiO2 and Ni-Ag(3.0)@C-TiO2 nanocomposites were anatase. The band gap of the TiO2 sample slightly shifted to the visible range after the addition of C dopant or Ni-Ag(3.0) co-catalyst as indicated by UV-Vis DRS spectra. Ni-Ag(3.0)@C-TiO2 catalyst showed high photocatalytic activity for photodegradation of MB under both UV and visible irradiations at 60 ºC within 2 hours with maximum MB conversion of 67.5% and 54.1%, respectively. The synergistic action of C dopant or Ni-Ag(3.0) co-catalyst is believed to be important in the improvement of photocatalytic activity of @TiO2. Copyright © 2020 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).