- About this Journal
- Abstracting and Indexing
- Aims and Scope
- Article Processing Charges
- Articles in Press
- Author Guidelines
- Bibliographic Information
- Citations to this Journal
- Contact Information
- Editorial Board
- Editorial Workflow
- Free eTOC Alerts
- Publication Ethics
- Submit a Manuscript
- Table of Contents
ISRN Nanomaterials
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 304546, 6 pages
doi:10.5402/2012/304546
Influence of the Percentage of Doped into Matrix on Photocatalysis
Chemistry Department, Universidade de Franca, Avenida Dr. Armando Salles Oliveira, 201—Parque Universitário, 14404-600 Franca, SP, Brazil
Received 18 June 2012; Accepted 31 July 2012
Academic Editors: M. C. Garcia-Gutierrez, I. Kholmanov, and J. Majimel
Copyright © 2012 L. M. L. da Silva et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The sol-gel process was employed in the preparation of titania-doped spherical nanosilica for application in photocatalysis. To this end, the silica matrix was doped with 1 and 10% titania, and the catalytic activity of the resulting solids in the degradation of rhodamine was tested. The synthesized materials were thermally treated at 120, 400, and 800°C. Differential thermal analysis did not evidence the titania-phase transition from anatase to rutile. Scanning electron microscopy revealed the formation of monodisperse spherical nanoparticles with sizes varying between 400 and 500 nm. The UV-Vis absorption spectra showed that the silica doped with 10% titania promoted 86% rhodamine degradation within 90 minutes, as compared to 40% in the case of the silica containing 1% titania. The silica matrix was demonstrated to affect the titania-phase transformation.