Depositional Characteristics of Metal Coating on Single-Crystal TiO2 Nanowires

Nanocomposites containing titanium dioxide for environmental remediation

Titania is considered to be one of the most versatile material in its nanoform. Scientific community looks towards it to address various pressing global problems. One such problem is aquatic pollution arising from organic chemicals such as dyes, pesticides, antibiotics etc. due to industrial, domestic and agricultural activities. Titania proves to be very effective to address this problem owing to its superior photocatalytic properties. In this review, we will review the recent advances in titania-based nanocomposites. The recent advances discussed in this review include synthesis of titania, modification of titania, exploration of various supports such as silica, carbon, graphene etc., that is documented to enhance its environmental remediation properties.

Enhancing the linear absorption and tuning the nonlinearity of TiO2 nanowires through the incorporation of Ag nanoparticles

We report on the enhanced linear absorption and modified nonlinear absorption of TiO2 nanowires coated with Ag nanoparticles. Experimental results indicated that the coated Ag nanoparticles significantly increased the linear absorption of the nanostructures in the wavelength range of visible light. Z-scan experiments showed that when the excitation energy increased, the nonlinear absorption of the TiO2 nanowires changed from reverse-saturable absorption to saturable absorption. When Ag nanoparticles were coated on the TiO2 nanowires, the reverse-saturable absorption was significantly inhibited. The as-prepared nanostructures may find potential applications in the field of solar cells and all-optical switching.

Heteronanostructure of Ag particle on titanate nanowire membrane with enhanced photocatalytic properties and bactericidal activities

A novel seed induced method has been developed for syntheses of Ag particles on titanate nanowires, and then the heteronanostructured Ag/titanate nanowires were assembled into porous, flexible membranes. These titanate nanowires were about several hundreds micrometers in length and about 80 nm in diameter. The size of the Ag particle can be tuned within 300-700 nm. The pore size and thickness of the heteronanostructured membrane were easily controlled. An Ag/titanate nanowire membrane reactor has been developed to study the photocatalytic degradation of methamidophos in aqueous solution, and 87.0% of the methamidophos can be degraded in a concurrent filtration and photocatalytic oxidation process. The antibacterial activity was also investigated on the heteronanostructured membrane with UVA light (365 nm) irradiation, and a 99.99% satisfactory antibacterial effect on Escherichia coli was achieved.

One-Pot Redox Syntheses of Heteronanostructures of Ag Nanoparticles on MoO3 Nanofibers

A new one-pot redox route has been developed for simultaneous syntheses of Ag nanoparticles on MoO(3) nanofibers. Four different synthetic reactions that have been integrated into the one-pot synthesis include the oxidation of [Na(H(2)O)(2)](0.25)MoO(3) bronze, the reduction of silver ions, and the in situ simultaneous growth of the self-organized Ag nanoparticles and the MoO(3) nanofibers. This new strategy can be generally applicable to grafting various metal nanoparticles on nanofibers for new catalysis-related applications.