Fabrication and characterization of electrospun Ag doped TiO₂ nanofibers for photocatalytic reaction

Titanium dioxide is one of the best semiconductor photocatalysts available for photocatalytic reaction of dye pollutants. To prevent the recombination caused by the relatively low photocatalytic efficiency, Ag doped TiO₂ nanofiber was prepared by electrospinning method. The photocatalysts (pure TiO₂ nanofiber and Ag doped TiO₂ nanofiber) were characterized by FE-SEM, XRD, XPS, and PL analysis. These photocatalysts were evaluated by the photodecomposition of methylene blue under UV light. Ag doped TiO₂ nanofiber was found to be more efficient than pure TiO₂ fiber for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue. The photocatalytic degradation rate was applied to pseudo-first-order equation. The degradation of Ag doped TiO₂ nanofiber was significantly higher than the degradation rate of pure TiO₂ nanofiber. Activation energy was calculated by applying Arrhenius equation from the rate constant of photocatalytic reaction. The activation energies for the pure TiO₂ nanofibers calcined at 400 and 500 °C were 16.981 and 12.187 kJ/mol and those of Ag doped TiO₂ nanofibers were 18.317 and 7.977 kJ/mol, respectively.