| AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Plasma Science and Technology Division | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session PS-TuP |
| Session: | Plasma Science and Technology Poster Session |
| Presenter: | Dain Sung, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea |
| Authors: | G.Y. Yeom, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea D.I. Sung, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea J.S. Oh, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea K.C. Yang, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea D.W. Kim, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is one of the multipurpose materials used for various functional applications such as solar photocatalysts for degradation of environmental contaminants due to its unique properties. Especially,environmental decontamination by photocatalysis using TiO2 nanotubes can be more appealing than conventional chemical oxidation methods because of its low costs, nontoxicity, high surface-to-volume ratios, high surface activity, and simple recycling. In addition, noble metal nanoparticles, such as Ag nanoparticles, doped on the surface of TiO2 nanotubes can increase their photocatalytic activities and can be easily fabricated by a photochemical deposition method under UV light irradiation. Among various methods to fabricate of TiO2 nanotubes, TiO2 nanotubes fabricated by using block copolymer (BCP) lithography and reactive ion etching (RIE) can form uniformly aligned nanoscale morphorlogies.
In this study, using the TiO2 nanotubes fabricated with BCP lithography, TiO2 atomic layer deposition (ALD), and RIE and Ag nanoparticles precipitated on TiO2 nanotubes by a photochemical method, the photocatalytic effect of TiO2 nanotubes with/without Ag nanoparticles was investigated by measuring the concentration change of a methylene blue solution. The photocatalytic effect of TiO2 nanotubes was higher than flat TiO2 film because of the increased TiO2 surface area. Also, Ag nanoparticles attached on the TiO2 nanotubes further improved the photocatalytic effect by facilitating electron–hole separation and promoting interfacial electron transfer process through the Ag nanoparticles. However, when the amount of Ag nanoparticles on TiO2 nanotubes are too much, possibly due to the decreased UV penetration to TiO2 by the increased surface area covered with Ag nanoparticles, the photocatalytic effect was decreased. By precipitating 7~9 nm size Ag nanoparticles for 20 min on 40~50 nm diameter/50~60 nm height TiO2 nanotubes, the highest photocatalytic effect could be obtained.