The Effect of Calcination Temperature on Structure and Photocatalytic Properties of WO3/TiO2 Nanocomposites

Series of WO3/TiO2 nanocomposites were obtained by hydrothermal method followed by calcination in the temperature range from 400°C to 900°C. The characteristics of photocatalysts by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) showed that...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Joanna Mioduska, Anna Zielińska-Jurek, Marcin Janczarek, Jan Hupka
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2016-01-01
Series:Journal of Nanomaterials
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/3145912
Description
Summary:Series of WO3/TiO2 nanocomposites were obtained by hydrothermal method followed by calcination in the temperature range from 400°C to 900°C. The characteristics of photocatalysts by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) showed that increasing the calcination temperature from 400 to 900°C resulted in change of photocatalytic activity under UV-Vis light. Moreover, the amount of WO3 crystalline phase and amorphous phase in WO3/TiO2 aggregates, as revealed by XRD analysis, was dependent on the calcination temperature. The WO3/TiO2 samples with 8 mol% load of WO3 in respect to TiO2 calcinated at 500 and 800°C possess the highest photocatalytic activity in reaction of phenol degradation, which is about 1.2 and 1.5 times that with calcination at 400°C. The increase in calcination temperature above 400°C resulted in increase of WO3 crystallinity and reduction of the amount of amorphous phase in the nanocomposite structure. Moreover, the annealing of nanocomposites above 700°C decreases the value of optical band gap energies of obtained WO3/TiO2 nanomaterials.
ISSN:1687-4110
1687-4129