Influences of Silver-Doping on the Crystal Structure, Morphology and Photocatalytic Activity of TiO2 Nanofibers

Doping of titanium dioxide nanofibers by silver nanoparticles revealed distinct improvement in the photocatalytic activ-ity; however other influences have not been investigated. In this work, effect of sliver-doping on the crystal structure, the nanofibrous morphology as well as the photocatalytic activity of titanium oxide nanofibers has been studied. Sil-ver-doped TiO2 nanofibers having different silver contents were prepared by calcination of electrospun nanofiber mats consisting of silver nitrate, titanium isopropoxide and poly(vinyl acetate) at 600°C. The results affirmed formation of silver-doped TiO2 nanofibers composed of anatase and rutile when the silver nitrate content in the original electrospun solution was more than 3 wt%. The rutile phase content was directly proportional with the AgNO3 concentration in the electrospun solution. Negative impact of the silver-doping on the nanofibrous morphology was observed as increase the silver content caused to decrease the aspect ratio, i.e. producing nanorods rather nanofibers. However, silver-doping leads to modify the surface roughness. Study of the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye clarified that in-crease the silver content strongly enhances the dye oxidation process.