Green synthesized metal nanoparticle incorporated titania silica and its application in the photodegradation of Rhodamine B

Photocatalytic activity of Titania has a very intriguing mechanism with numerous potential uses such as air and water cleaning. The inclusion of silica improves its catalytic capabilities. The use of titania silica nanoparticles for photocatalytic activity in environmental applications is limited due to their activity in the UV region rather than the visible range. Titania silica nanoparticles were synthesised using the sol-gel method. Metal nanoparticles of vanadium, manganese and silver were synthesised and integrated into the titania silica using a green method. To clarify the structure property correlations for titania silica materials, several characterisation techniques such as SEM-EDAX, IR analysis, UV-Visible spectroscopy and XRD were applied. The photocatalytic activities of titania alone, titania silica and titania silica including the various metals were studied.