Photocatalytic activity of highly porous Ti[O.sub.2]-AG materials

In the present work our interest is focused on evaluating the photocatalytic performances of Ti[O.sub.2] aerogels containing silver and correlating these data with the structural and morphological particularities. The highly porous Ti[O.sub.2] aerogels were obtained by Ti[O.sub.2] gels' impregnation with various concentrations of AgN[O.sub.3] solutions, followed by supercritical drying. In order to determine the morpho-structural parameters several complementary techniques such as nitrogen sorption, transmission electron microscopy in high resolution mode (HRTEM) and diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy (DRS) were employed. The photocatalytic activity of the porous samples was also tested and correlated with the morpho-structural characteristics. The presence of silver led to the increase of the crystallization degree of Ti[O.sub.2], with anatase and brookite phases being especially identified. Keywords: Ti[O.sub.2] aerogel, silver, photocatalytic activity, morphology, structure