Structural, Optical and Photocatalytic Properties of Anatase/Rutile TiO2 Nanoparticles

Volume 6 Issue 3 October - December 2018

Research Paper

Structural, Optical and Photocatalytic Properties of Anatase/Rutile TiO2 Nanoparticles

Eppa Radha*, Durgam Komaraiah**, M. V. Ramana Reddy***, R. Sayanna****, J. Sivakumar*****

*_** PhD Scholar, Department of Physics, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

***, ***** Professor, Department of Physics, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

**** Professor (Rtd), Department of Physics, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

Radha, E., Komaraiah, D., Reddy, M. V. R., Sayanna, R., and Sivakumar, J. (2018). Structural, Optical and Photocatalytic Properties of Anatase/Rutile TiO2 Nanoparticles. i-manager’s Journal on Material Science, 6(3), 43-49. https://doi.org/10.26634/jms.6.3.15318

Abstract

Titania photocatalyst was synthesized by sol-gel method using titanium tetra isopropoxide (TTIP) as a precursor. The TiO2 was annealed at 600oC and 800oC and then characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), UV-Vis DRSand FTIR spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction analysis confirms that the TiO2 annealed at 600oC was found to be anatase phase and annealed at 800oC was found to be rutile phase. The crystalline size of anatase TiO2 is about 17 nm and rutile is about 50nm. The characteristic IR bandobserved from 400 to 900 cm−1corresponds to the Ti–O bond stretching vibrations can be clearly observed from FTIR analysis. The indirect band gap energy of rutile TiO2 is about 2.83 eV and anatase TiO2 is about 3.00 eV.Photocatalytic activity of TiO2 was evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye in aqueous solution as a model pollutant under visible light irradiation. Aanatase TiO2 exhibited more efficient PCA than the rutile TiO2. After 4h photodegradation of MB solution was obtained to 96% foranatase TiO2 and 90% for rutile. The small crystallite size and anatase phase probably resulted in the high photocatalytic activity of TiO2.