Silver‐Doped TiO₂‐Coated Cotton Fabric as an Effective Photocatalytic System for Dye Decolorization in UV and Visible Light

Abstract

In this study, titanium tetra-isopropoxide was used as a precursor of TiO for in situ coating on cotton fabric by sol-gel method. Subsequently, silver nitrate was used as doping agent to prepare silver-doped TiO -coated cotton fabric during hydrothermal treatment. The treated samples were characterized through field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy to study morphology, composition of deposited elements and light absorption behavior of treated samples. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was carried out to analyze the electronic state of silver in TiO -coated fabric after hydrothermal treatment. Doping of silver on TiO -coated fabric and subsequent hydrothermal treatment was found to enhance dye decolorization rate of rhodamine B dye solution in both UV and visible light radiations with respect to undoped TiO . The study shows that an optimal level of silver-doped TiO -coated fabric can be used repeatedly for dye decolorization without significant loss in its photocatalytic activity. The self-cleaning properties of samples were also studied using methylene blue as a staining agent. It was observed that the presence of 1.8% silver on the weight of titanium in doped samples provides almost 82% of stain degradation.

A Simple Drop-and-Dry Approach to Grass-Like Multifunctional Nanocoating on Flexible Cotton Fabrics Using In Situ-Generated Coating Solution Comprising Titanium-Oxo Clusters and Silver Nanoparticles

“…This work indicates the great potential of including other nanocomponents into the well-established drop-and-dry coating strategy using TOC precursors, making it one step closer to real-life applications. In the literature, a single-step coating strategy usually only render the coated fabrics with limited functionality, , and similar multifunctional heterogeneous nanocoating on cotton fabrics is mainly achieved via multistep operations. − In both cases, the resultant coating materials mostly exhibit a thin-layer or random nanoparticulate morphologies. In contrast, the drop-and-dry approach described in this study only involves a facile single-step operation but readily generates novel nanograss-like surface morphology made of TOCs and AgNPs, which, we believe, will stimulate further research interests in developing unprecedented nanocoating strategies essential for various technological fields.…”

A Sharp Jump in Photocatalytic Activity of Elemental Sulfur for Dye Degradation in Alkaline Solution

“…Thus, these pollutants must be removed from the water (1). Several methods have been reported for the removal of dyes from wastewater such as adsorption (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11), membrane filtration (12,13), oxidation (14), coagulation-flocculation (15), and photocatalytic process (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28). Each of these methods has their advantages and disadvantages.…”