Abstract As TiO2 is suitable for electronic and electrical applications, in the present work the authors have successfully modified TiO2 by adding silver (Ag) to form titanium oxide-silver oxide (TiO2:Ag2O) nanocomposite samples by using sol-gel technique. Characterizations of these composites have been performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. XRD study revealed that the crystal structure of the samples consisted of tetragonal and cubic phases. This study further showed an increment in the average crystallite size from 8 nm to 38 nm with an increase in Ag concentration. The increase in crystallite size has been confirmed additionally by SEM and AFM. The increment in the average particle size of the samples may be attributed to an increase in silver molarity in the TiO2 matrix. Significant red shift in the absorption edge has been observed, causing reduction in the energy bandgap of the composites from 3.89 eV to 3.46 eV with an increase in particle size which is evident from UV-Vis spectroscopic studies. This wide-band gap properties of the TiO2:Ag2O nanocomposite make it suitable for memory-storage devices and dielectric applications.

中文翻译：

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溶胶-凝胶法对TiO2:Ag2O纳米复合材料的结构和光学研究

摘要 由于 TiO2 适用于电子和电气应用，在目前的工作中，作者成功地通过添加银 (Ag) 改性 TiO2，使用溶胶-凝胶技术形成氧化钛-氧化银 (TiO2:Ag2O) 纳米复合样品。这些复合材料的表征已使用 X 射线衍射 (XRD)、原子力显微镜 (AFM)、扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 和 UV-Vis 光谱进行。XRD研究表明样品的晶体结构由四方相和立方相组成。该研究进一步表明，随着 Ag 浓度的增加，平均微晶尺寸从 8 nm 增加到 38 nm。SEM 和 AFM 进一步证实了晶粒尺寸的增加。样品平均粒径的增加可能归因于 TiO2 基质中银摩尔浓度的增加。已经观察到吸收边缘的显着红移，导致复合材料的能带隙从 3.89 eV 减小到 3.46 eV，并且粒径增加，这从紫外-可见光谱研究中可以明显看出。TiO2:Ag2O 纳米复合材料的这种宽带隙特性使其适用于存储器存储设备和电介质应用。