Surface Decoration Of Photocatalytic TiO2 With Metal Nanoparticles By Means Of High-energy Ultrasound To Improve Its Photocatalytic Activity

Titanium dioxide is one of the most promising semiconductor materials to use in photocatalysis for the removal of pollutants in gas phase. The wide band gap of TiO2 is a problem when the material must be activated by solar light and not by UV light. It was observed that some Ag-Nps deposited on the titanium dioxide’s surface can improve its photocatalytic activity. In this work, sonochemical routes of molybdenum, rhenium, copper or tungsten mixed oxides synthesis has been employed to decorate the surface of micrometric and commercial TiO2 catalysts. This is a new approach to obtain metal nanoparticles on the surface of the TiO2 substrate by using sonochemistry. These samples were primarily tested on the photodegradation of VOCs and NOx.