Properties of sol-gel derived silver doped titania nanoparticles

Silver doped (4%, 8%, 12% and 16%) TiO2 nanoparticles have been prepared by sol–gel method at room temperature. In this present study, we used titanium tetra isopropoxide and 2–propanol as a common starting materials and found that the final product was in anatase phase. The samples of pure anatase were calcined at 500°C for 5 h. The X-ray powder diffraction study reveals that all the prepared samples have pure anatase phase of tetragonal system. The functional groups of the samples were identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The diffused reflectance UV–Vis-DRS spectra indicated that the Ag doped TiO2 samples exhibit higher blue shifts compared with the undoped TiO2 nanoparticle. The photoluminescence studies showed that emission Peaks are shifted to lower wavelength regions. The morphological structures and elements present in the samples were determined by using techniques viz., scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX).