Pure and Ag/ TiO2 hybrid nanotubular fibers for photocatalytic applications

Commercialized TiO2 is the dominant semiconductor found in practical applications of UV activated photocatalysis, and countless laboratories throughout the world continue to focus on modifying TiO2 in attempts to address an endless list of environmental concerns that may be solved through photocatalysis. Since the efficiency of photocatalytic reactions is directly affected by the crystalinity and catalyst surface area, development of Crystalline TiO2 nanostructured with high surface area would be of great interest. However for practical application the photocatalytic property of TiO2 needs a further improvement. Noble metals, including Pt, Au, Pd, Rh, Ni, Cu and Ag [1], have been reported to be very effective for enhancement of TiO2 photocatalysis.Recently, there has been considerable interest in the fabrication of one-dimensional nanomaterials. Template synthesis is one of the commonly used methods to fabricate the nanotubes with predetermined dimensions. Different porous templates such as AAO [2] and CNT [3] have been already used.In this article we have used cellulose fibers as templates to make porous fibers of pure and composite fibers based on TiO2. Cellulose is the most abundant natural polymer, and in the form of cotton consists of fibers of a few micrometer sizes, with a surface area of about 1 m2/g. It is low cost and economically favored for practical applications.In order to prepare TiO2 film on cotton fibers Liquid phase deposition (LPD) technique was employed. LPD is a sol-gel based growth method, in which TiO2 is nucleated and grown directly on the surface of substrate. LPD is capable of forming TiO2 thin films on various kinds of substrates with complex morphology, at near room temperaturei [9]. Crystalline structures with good adhesion on the substrate are possible with LPD