Light induced catalytic and electrochemical enhancement in metal nanoparticles crafted one dimensional TiO2 nanotubes

Abstract

One-dimensional nanostructures of titanium dioxide (TiO2) pay tremendous attention to photocatalysis. In this context, we present the consequence of bimetallic nanoparticles (Zn-Pd) on electrochemical and photocatalytic properties of TiO2 nanotubes (TiNTs). Bimetallic nanoparticles of Zn-Pd are crafted on TiNTs by photodeposition process at room temperature. The presence of bimetallic nanoparticles (MNPs) decreases the ability of the recollection of the electron-hole pairs and modifies structure of TiNTs. Crafting of Zn-Pd on TiNTs modify the structure of ZnPd-TiNTs as evident by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that nanoparticles of Zn-Pd are crafted uniformly over TiNTs. The detailed analysis of TiNTs and ZnPd-TiNTs are investigated via X-ray diffraction (XRD) and raman spectroscopy. Observations reveals intensity of plane increases after crafting of Zn-Pd, showing increased anatase phase crystallinity and crystallite size. In addition, the change in the peak position of ZnPd-TiNTs is due to the crafting of Zn-Pd over TiO2, resulting in a change in the TiO2 structure. The changed structure of TiNT extensively changes the catalytic properties of the hybrids of ZnPd-TiNTs that have been further corroborated by photocatalytic applications. The photocatalytic behavior of ZnPd-TiNT hybrids is found to be significantly higher than TiNTs. The enhancement in photocatalytic activity of ZnPd-TiNTs hybrids is owing to the better charge separation.