Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue by Using Au-TiO2

In this work, Au-TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized in a single step by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that phase structures of all samples TiO2 were the mixture of anatase and rutile phases. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) showed that dark spots of Au NPs deposited on larger TiO2 nanoparticles. HRTEM results indicated TiO2 NPs were average crystallite size in the range of 10–30 nm whereas the average diameter of Au NPs was about 5–10 nm. UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy technique showed peaks attributable of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to Au NPs loaded on TiO2 in the wavelength of 500–630 nm. The Au-TiO2 NPs showed excellent photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV-Vis irradiation. It was found that 0.25 mol% Au-TiO2 which was a better photocatalyst than others under the same reaction conditions. The results showed that Au NPs-loading could effectively improve the photocatalytic activities of TiO2.