Photocatalytic and antimicrobial coatings by electrodeposition of silver/TiO2 nano-composites

Titanium dioxide is a promising photo-catalyst for decontamination and purification of air and wastewater, as proved by several researches carried out worldwide since 1970s. In this work, the optimization of Ag/TiO2 composite surfaces, produced by means of electrochemical techniques is presented and discussed. The presence of silver is beneficial to increase the bioactivity of the film in disinfection processes, but it is important to verify that its presence shows beneficial, or in the worst case nil, effects on photo-catalytic decomposition of non-biological contaminants. An organic dye (rhodamine B) was first considered as model reactant; the antibacterial effect was also studied on the most promising films, through the evaluation of total bacterial counts in the presence of TiO2 films.