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Review
. 2021 Jan 29:8:568063.
doi: 10.3389/fchem.2020.568063. eCollection 2020.

Application of Plasmonic Metal Nanoparticles in TiO2-SiO2 Composite as an Efficient Solar-Activated Photocatalyst: A Review Paper

Collin G Joseph  1   2   3 , Yun Hin Taufiq-Yap  4   5   3 , Baba Musta  2 , Mohd Sani Sarjadi  3 , L Elilarasi  1   6
Affiliations
Review

Application of Plasmonic Metal Nanoparticles in TiO2-SiO2 Composite as an Efficient Solar-Activated Photocatalyst: A Review Paper

Collin G Joseph et al. Front Chem. .

Abstract

Over the last decade, interest in the utilization of solar energy for photocatalysis treatment processes has taken centre-stage. Researchers had focused on doping TiO2 with SiO2 to obtain an efficient degradation rate of various types of target pollutants both under UV and visible-light irradiation. In order to further improve this degradation effect, some researchers resorted to incorporate plasmonic metal nanoparticles such as silver and gold into the combined TiO2-SiO2 to fully optimize the TiO2-SiO2's potential in the visible-light region. This article focuses on the challenges in utilizing TiO2 in the visible-light region, the contribution of SiO2 in enhancing photocatalytic activities of the TiO2-SiO2 photocatalyst, and the ability of plasmonic metal nanoparticles (Ag and Au) to edge the TiO2-SiO2 photocatalyst toward an efficient solar photocatalyst.

Keywords: TiO2-SiO2; dye; photocatalysis; plasmonic metal nanoparticles; visible region.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The solar energy spectrum based on the number of photons received per second per unit area of 1 m2 vs. the photon energy detected on a clear sunny day with the sun at 60° above the horizon. I: IR region, II: visible region, and III: UV region cited by Choi, 2007 which was originally adapted from Oriel-Instruments (Book of Photon Tools, Oriel-Instruments, 1999).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Photocatalytic degradation of phenol over TiO2-SiO2 photocatalyst (source: Kibombo et al. (2012)).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra of various SiO2-TiO2-Fe2O3 combinations. Inset: the plots of (αhv)1/2 vs. photon energy of different catalysts. Ratio percentage of Fe/Ti amount: a, 0%; b, 1%; c, 3%; d, 5%; e, 8% (source: Wang et al. (2016)).
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra of various SiO2-Fe2O3-TiO2 combinations. Inset: the plots of (αhv)1/2 vs. the photon energy of different catalysts. Ratio percentage of Fe/Ti amount: a, 0%; b, 1%; c, 3%; d, 5%; e, 8% (source: Wang et al. (2016)).
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Schematic representations of excited electron generated in AuNS and transfer to the TiO2 CB, where ECB, Ef, and EVB represent the energies of the conduction band, Fermi level, and valence band, respectively (source: Shi et al. (2016)).
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Reaction mechanism of the Ag@AgBr/mp-TiO2 photocatalyst under visible-light irradiation (source: Hayashido et al., 2016).
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
UV-Vis spectrophotometer absorption spectra of 5% silver halide supported on silica (Hamal and Klabunde (2010)).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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