The objective of this research is to study the effects of zirconium and silver co-dopants on the photocatalytic reactivity of TiO₂. Zirconium and silver co-doped titanium dioxide (Zr-Ag co-doped TiO₂) was synthesized by sol-gel method. The molar ratio of silver was fixed at 5% mol, while the molar ratio of zirconium was varied at 5, 10, and 15% mol. The synthesized photocatalysts were calcined at 500 °C for 5 h. The characteristics of the photocatalysts were examined by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). The XRD results indicated that the anatase phase of TiO₂ and metal doping did not affect the crystal phase of TiO₂, and the FESEM confirmed the presence of silver and zirconium in co-doped TiO₂. After doping, the band gap energy of the doped TiO₂ was significantly reduced due to the red shift effect. The photocatalytic reactivity and kinetics of the photocatalysts were investigated by photocatalytic decolorization of methylene blue (MB) under UV and fluorescent light. Photocatalytic decolorization of MB dramatically improved when TiO₂ was co-doped with silver and zirconium. The antibacterial efficiency of Zr-Ag co-doped TiO₂ against Escherichia coli (E. coli) was also investigated under fluorescent light and in the dark. The synergistic effects of zirconium and silver dopants on the photocatalytic and antibacterial activity of TiO₂ were observed. The 5% mol of silver and 10% mol of zirconium co-doped TiO₂ exhibited the highest decolorization efficiency at 98.07% under fluorescent light and could completely inhibit E. coli under fluorescent light within 20 min.

Graphical abstract

中文翻译：

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TiO 2纳米粒子中锆和银共掺杂剂对有机染料的光催化降解和抗菌活性的协同作用

这项研究的目的是研究锆和银的共掺杂剂对TiO ₂的光催化反应性的影响。通过溶胶-凝胶法合成了锆和银共掺杂的二氧化钛（Zr-Ag共掺杂的TiO ₂）。银的摩尔比固定为5％摩尔，而锆的摩尔比变化为5％，10％和15％摩尔。合成的光催化剂在500°C下煅烧5 h。通过X射线衍射光谱（XRD），紫外可见光谱（UV-Vis）和场发射扫描电子显微镜（FESEM）检查了光催化剂的特性。XRD结果表明TiO ₂的锐钛矿相和金属掺杂不会影响TiO ₂的晶相。，FESEM证实了共掺杂TiO _2中存在银和锆。掺杂后，由于红移效应，掺杂的TiO ₂的带隙能量显着降低。通过在紫外光和荧光灯下对亚甲基蓝（MB）进行光催化脱色研究了光催化剂的光催化反应活性和动力学。当TiO ₂与银和锆共掺杂时，MB的光催化脱色得到显着改善。锆-银共掺杂的TiO 2的抗菌效率₂对大肠杆菌（大肠杆菌）还在荧光灯和黑暗中进行了研究。观察到锆和银掺杂剂对TiO ₂的光催化和抗菌活性具有协同作用。5％的银和10％的锆共掺杂的TiO ₂在荧光灯下的脱色效率最高，为98.07％，并且可以在20分钟内完全抑制荧光灯下的大肠杆菌。

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