Synthesis of Ag2S-TiO2 nanocomposites and their catalytic activity towards rhodamine B photodegradation

Abstract

Ag2S-TiO2 nanocomposites were prepared by a simple thermal decomposition approach. The synthesized nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). XRD results indicate that the Ag2S-TiO2 nanocomposites consist of nanocrystallites of Ag2S and TiO2. TEM results indicate uniform distribution of Ag2S nanoparticles (8.8 ± 1.9 nm) in the TiO2 matrix. A blue shift of band gap of Ag2S in the nanocomposites compared to bulk Ag2S is observed. The Ag2S-TiO2 nanocomposites act as good catalyst for the photodegradation of Rhodamine B in aqueous solutions in the presence of sunlight. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.