Preparation and Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of TiO2 Nanobelts Decorated with Silver Nanoparticles

In this paper, well-oriented TiO2 nanobelts decorated with silver nanoparticles on titanium foils were prepared by hydrothermal corrosion, subsequently annealing treatment and successive ionic layer adsorption reaction (SILAR) technique. The ultraviolet-visible absorption spectra show that the silver nanoparticles deposited on the TiO2 nanobelts surfaces can induce the red-shift of absorption edge and exhibits a broad absorption band in the visible region, which extends the scope of absorption spectrum and help to improve the photocatalytic degradation efficiency. The photocatalytic experiment results reveal that silver-decorated TiO2 nanobelts possess higher photocatalytic activities toward methyl orange than pure TiO2 nanobelts. In addition, the as-prepared Ag/TiO2 composite photocatalysts also exhibited excellent long-time recyclable ability for the degradation of contaminants.