Preparation of palladium, silver, and nitrogen co-doped mesoporous titanium dioxide nanoparticles to investigate their photocatalytic action

Mesoporous nanostructures of TiO₂ co-doped with silver, nitrogen, and palladium are formulated by using silver nitrate, urea, palladium chloride, titanium isopropoxide, and surfactant P123 via the evaporation induced self-assembly method. Amount of nitrogen and palladium is kept constant in all the co-doped samples. Crystallite size range with anatase structure is calculated by x-ray diffraction analysis is 8.87-17.74 nm. Extant of disparate functional groups is calculated by analysis of FTIR spectra. Decrease in the band gap energy from 3.25 eV to 1.76 eV can be correlated with increasing doping quantity and is confirmed by UV-vis analysis. Analysis of PL spectra revealed the lower rate of charge carrier recombination with increasing doping percentage. Existence of 7.9 nm diameter pore size is shown by the BJH desorption study. Agglomerated morphology with porous nature is shown by the SEM and TEM analysis. The elements used for co-doping with TiO₂ are shown in the EDX spectra. Effect of dopants on photocatalytic action of TiO₂ is checked against three dyes.