Enhanced visible light-driven photocatalytic degradation supported by Au-TiO2 coral-needle nanoparticles

Abstract

The unique of coral-needle nanoparticles (CNPs) were prepared via a liquid chemical reaction and mediation technique to develop the eco-synthesis of Au-TiO2. Based on this study, Au-TiO2 has a high-performance compared with TiO2 for the degradation of methyl orange (MO) organic compound under visible light irradiation which evidenced by the optical properties of each product. Au-TiO2 CNPs has high-response of absorption activity in the visible light area in a range of 555–600 nm, whereas the activity of TiO2 remains a low-level absorption. Also, the successful decoration of Au exhibits that the Au-TiO2 CNPs has gives the sparkling morphologically effect and dramatically for plasmonic photocatalytic with the CNPs structure. We also testing photocatalytic activity that the increase of repetition the Au coated onto TiO2 is rationalized for high-sensitivity degradation of MO organic compound under visible light irradiation with % degradation of ∼36 % for 120 min. This study can provide useful new information about the design for the Au-TiO2 plasmonic photocatalysts for solar-to-chemical transformations.