Immobilization of Titania Nanoparticles on a Solid Support

Abstract

This study was conducted to find an effective way to immobilize titania nanoparticles (un-doped & silver-doped) on a suitable solid substrate so that this coated substrate would be used for photocatalytic elimination of toxic environmental pollutants in water. In this study immobilization of titania on glass beads was carried out by conventional Sol Gel (SG) method and the Modified Sol Gel (MSG) method (Balasubramanian et al., 2003) using three different types of titania precursors; (a) Titania General Purpose Reagent (GPR); (b) Titania Undoped nanaoparticles (UNP) and (c) Titania Ag-doped nanoparticles (AgNP). Pure and silver doped (1% molar ratio) titania nanoparticles were synthesized from titania General Purpose Reagent (GPR) by calcination and liquid impregnation methods (Asghar et al., 2011). XRD, SEM, EDS, analysis were performed to characterize the synthesized particles and the coating on the beads. The results of this study show that MSG method offers superior coatings as compared to SG method, in term of titania quantity and nanoparticles added MSG method offers better coatings results, in term of coating coverage and photocatalytic performance for elimination of 4-Nitrophenol and Arsenic from water.