Preparation of TiO2/ITO Photo Anode Doped With Silver and Copper for Photo Electro Catalysis degradation of methylene Blue Under Sunlight

Abstract

In this study, copper or silver doped TiO₂ photoanodes were prepared by Sol-gel method on ITO glass by Dip

 coating method. The anodes were optically and morphologically characterize by AFM, FTIR, and UV-Vis, and their energy gap values ​​were calculated, E_g(Cu) = 3.15eV, E_g(Ag) = 2.95eV. While its value for the pure TiO₂ anode was E_{g (TiO2)} = 3.5eV. The kinetics of MB degradation on the prepared anodes follow a first-order equation, the color removal percentage of MB was 32.76%, 45.55%, 49.70%, and the total organic carbon TOC% removed 18.92%, 26.16%, 31.22%, for each of the pure TiO₂ anodes, copper-doped and silver-doped, respectively, and thus the results indicate that the process of doping TiO₂ with copper or silver improves the efficiency of applying photoelectrocatalytic technology under sunlight irradiation.