Increasing of Photocatalytic Performance of TiO₂ Nanotubes by Doping AgS and CdS

Abstract

Highly ordered titanium nanotubes (TiO₂ NTs) photocatalyst was prepared by the anodic oxidation method, and AgS, CdS, and AgS/CdS nanoparticles were doped on the surface of TiO₂ NTs by the successive ion adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. The photocatalysts were characterized by SEM, EDS, XRD, and potentiostat system. The SEM and EDS analyses respectively show that the average outer diameter of prepared photocatalysts is in the range of 50–120 nm, and the presence of Ti, O, Ag, and Cd is successfully proved. The photocatalytic properties of TiO₂ NTs and doped TiO₂ NTs were studied by measuring the degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) solution. The experimental results show that AgS/CdS/TiO₂ photocatalyst exhibited most efficient photocatalytic activity with 340 µA/cm² photocurrent value. AgS/CdS/TiO₂ NTs photocatalyst shows up to 22.20% higher than TiO₂ NTs, 16.42% higher than CdS/TiO₂ NTs, and 4.3% higher than AgS/TiO₂ NTs.

Keywords:

• Doped TiO₂ nanotubes
• Photocatalysis
• Photocatalytic degradation
• Textile dye