Evaluation Of The Photocatalytic Performance Of Nanocomposite Material Of Tio2 And Nanoporous Gold Prepared By Simple Processing Method

Nano-scale noble metallic materials exhibit catalytic activity and can serve as photocatalytic cocatalysts. The effectiveness of nanoporous gold (NPG) as a cocatalyst on TiO2 depends on NPG pore size and composition. Suitably sized pores ensure that NPG can exhibit surface plasmon resonance, which enhances the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 for hydroxyl (OH) radical generation. Moreover, Ag on NPG serves as generation sites for reactive oxygen species, because O-2 can be decomposed to atomic oxygen. Owing to these factors, NPG could serve as a high-performance cocatalyst for TiO2. In this study, we utilized the porous property of NPG to fabricate a nanocomposite material of TiO2 and NPG (TiO2/NPG) without annealing or complicated processing. Moreover, we evaluated the photocatalytic activity of the TiO2/NPG composite by measuring the amount of generated OH radicals. Our results suggest that NPG promoted the generation of OH radicals and that the amount of OH radicals increased with particular pore sizes of NPG and amounts of Ag.