Ionic liquid-facilitated synthesis and catalytic activity of highly dispersed Ag nanoclusters supported on TiO2

Huanjun Zhang; Xinyong Li; Guohua Chen

doi:10.1039/B910610C

Ionic liquid-facilitated synthesis and catalytic activity of highly dispersed Ag nanoclusters supported on TiO₂†

Huanjun Zhang,^a Xinyong Li^b and Guohua Chen*^ab

* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
E-mail: kechengh@ust.hk
Fax: +86 852 2358 0054
Tel: +86 852 2358 7138

^b School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China

Abstract

This study describes a one-pot sol–gel method for the synthesis of Ag/TiO₂ nanocomposite powders. TEM images showed that the Ag clusters formed with this method are highly dispersed on the surface of TiO₂ nanoparticles. UV/visible spectroscopy results indicated that [BMIM][PF₆], an imidazolium-based room-temperature ionic liquid, strongly inhibited the formation and growth of Ag clusters in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent. This made it possible to prepare a stable stock solution containing AgNO₃–[BMIM][PF₆]–DMF. Dilution of the stock solution followed by hydrolysis resulted in a gel that was processed to produce Ag/TiO₂ nanocomposites containing Ag clusters with average size smaller than 3 nm. XPS results indicated that the silver species exist predominantly in the metallic form. Because of the high dispersion and controlled size of the Ag clusters, the Ag/TiO₂ nanocomposites demonstrated excellent catalytic performance in the aqueous phase reduction of methylene blue and the hydrogenation of 4-nitrophenol using NaBH₄ as the reducing agent.

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/B910610C
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 29 May 2009
Accepted: 06 Aug 2009
First published: 29 Sep 2009

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J. Mater. Chem., 2009,19, 8223-8231

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Ionic liquid-facilitated synthesis and catalytic activity of highly dispersed Ag nanoclusters supported on TiO₂

H. Zhang, X. Li and G. Chen, J. Mater. Chem., 2009, 19, 8223 DOI: 10.1039/B910610C

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Journal of Materials Chemistry