Synthesis and Characterization of Silver-Doped TiO2 Nanocomposite Using Diethanolamine as Solvent: Photocatalytic Performance for Organic Dye Degradation and Antimicrobial Activity

In this research work, Ag-doped and undoped TiO2 nanocomposites were prepared through a sol–gel method, using diethanolamine as a solvent. From the evolution of various characterized techniques (XRD, FT-IR, SEM and TGA analysis), it was found that Ag-TiO2 nanocomposites have a mixture of rutile and anatase phases of titania. The catalytic performance of the Ag-TiO2 nanocomposites was evaluated for Eriochrome Black T (EBT) photodegradation. To determine the photocatalytic efficiency of the nanocomposites, different factors including pH (2–12), catalytic dose (2–12 mg), reaction time (0–180 min) and concentration (2–10 mg/L) were investigated. The calcined Ag-TiO2 showed high degradation (94%) for EBT at a low pH for 0.01 g of catalyst using 10 mg/L of dye solution. The kinetic study revealed that the photocatalytic degradation process obeys pseudo second-order kinetics. To investigate antibacterial effects, different bacteria such as Enterococcous, Staph Avrius, serritia and Escherichia E. coli were utilized. A total of 200 mg of calcined Ag-TiO2 nanocomposite showed optimum activities against bacterial strains.