Synergistic Photocatalytic Activity of Vox-TiO2 Nanocomposite Under UV and Visible Light Conditions

VOx-TiO2 nanocomposite made by one-pot synthesis showed the different catalytic activity from the mixture of VOx and TiO2 nanoparticles. Photocatalytic activity of VOx-TiO₂ nanocomposite with various compositions was investigated by following photodegradation of methylene blue in aqueous solutions. Nanocomposites show significant enhancement of decomposition of methylene blue and the reason is considered by the synergistic effect between two different materials. However, this synergy was not obtained from the mixture of VOx and TiO2 nanoparticles. Morphologies of synthesized catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and UV-visible diffuse-reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). Composition of nanocomposite catalysts wase varied by vanadium precursor amount and the photocatalytic activity was analyzed based on pseudo first-order reaction kinetics under 250 W Xe-lamp radiation with various longpass filters for UV and visible light conditions. Obtained results show that the as-prepared VOx-TiO2 nanocomposites have different degradation abilities of methylene blue dependent on the amount of vanadium oxide and the wavelength of exposed light source.