SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SILVER-TITANIA NANOCOMPOSITES

Abstract

A facile and easy thermal decomposition route for the synthesis of silver-titania nanocomposites by silver acetate and titania has been developed. In this, two types of titania sol-gel titania and commercial titania (with/ without calcination) were used. The silvertitania nanocomposites were characterized by the use of various characterization techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), elemental analysis (CHN analysis), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). All the results show the presence of both silver and titania in all the nanocomposites. Also, the catalytic activity of silver-titania nanocomposites has been studied by the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol using sodium borohydride as the reducing agent.