Synthesis, Characterization and Heterogeneous Photocatalytic activity of H3PW12O40/TiO2/Ag Composites

Abstract Heteropolyacids(HPA) are active reusable catalysts due to their strong Bronsted acidity character compared to H 2 SO 4, HCl, AlCl 3 etc. one of the Keggin ions of polyoxometalatei.e, 12-phosphotungstic acid molecules have significant attention due to electron-proton transfer, storage ability and high thermal stability. Titania is a widely used Semiconductor material possessing excellent chemical and physical properties such as wide band gap, easily available, economical, non toxic and biocompatible. AnPhotocatalyst has been synthesized by doping noble metal nanoparticle into H 3 PW 12 O 40 /TiO 2 composite by wet impregnation method. The as-prepared nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffractometer(XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and UV-Visible spectroscopy. In the Photoreaction study, it is found that photocatalytic activity increases by doping the noble metal silver nanoparticles into the composite. The photocatalytic activity of the catalyst was evaluated for the degradation of methylene blue dye under the Visible light.