Influence of pH on the formulation of TiO2 nano-crystalline powders with high photocatalytic activity

This paper describes the effect of synthesis conditions on the formation of anatase and rutile crystalline phases and photocatalytic activity of synthesised TiO₂ phase. The synthesised powders were characterised by X-ray diffraction, Raman microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. Using these characterisation techniques, the structural, morphological and optical properties as a function of formulation pH were determined. Since photocatalysis is a surface process, the mass surface charge of the powders was also measured using a Faraday Cage connected to an electrometer. The structural, morphological, optical and surface properties were correlated with the photocatalytic activity of the formulated TiO₂ powders.The influence of synthesis condition on the photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ powders was determined by the degradation of Methylene Blue dye under both UV-A and visible light.