Influence of the synthesis pH on the properties and activity of sol-gel TiO2 photocatalysts

Abstract

The activity of titania photocatalysts is highly dependent on the synthesis procedure. This work reports a study of the correlation between the photocatalytic activity and the physicochemical and photoelectrochemical properties of sol-gel TiO 2 powders and electrodes synthesized using different pH values and temperatures. The activity of the materials has been evaluated using the decolorization of Reactive Orange 16 (RO16) as model reaction. In contrast with the large number of studies reporting the influence of the temperature, our results point out that preparation pH has even more influence on the crystalline phases and the photocatalytic activity of TiO 2 powders and photocurrents of the electrodes. However, the effects on the activity and the photocurrents recorded after immobilization on a conducting support do not vary accordingly. Consequently, our results indicate that the measurement of the photocurrent in an electrolyte media is not a good indicator of the photocatalytic activity of the unsupported system.