Enhancement in the visible light induced photocatalytic and antibacterial properties of titanium dioxide codoped with cobalt and sulfur

Abstract

In this study, the sol-gel technique was used to develop Cobalt Sulfur codoped Titanium Dioxide (Co–S codoped TiO2) photocatalysts. For structural analysis of the prepared resultant TiO2 samples, XRD, FTIR, UV–Vis DRS, SEM, HR-TEM and EDX measurements were used to describe the produced photocatalysts. The characterization findings indicate that the synthesized nanoparticles possessed great crystallinity, high purity, and superior optical characteristics. For the methylene blue (MB) degradation process, Co–S codoped TiO2 nanoparticles were tested for their photocatalytic degradation performance. The Co–S codoped TiO2 nanoparticles had improved catalytic activity when compared with pure, Co-doped, S-doped TiO2 and decomposed 93% of MB in 120 min. When compared to pure and doped TiO2, the catalysts of Co–S codoped TiO2 showed a synergistic effect and improved the performance of the catalysts. Furthermore, the antibacterial applications of synthesized Co–S codoped TiO2 nanoparticles was studied against E. coli (Gram negative) and S. aureus (Gram positive) bacteria and exhibited strong antibacterial activity against the selected strains.