Synthesıs and applıcatıons of zınc oxıde doped nano titanium dioxide (TiO2)

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is one of the most researched semiconductor oxides that has revolutionised Technologies in the field of enviromental purification and energy generation. Nanocrystalline TiO2, one of the most popular photocatalyst, have long been investigated in environmental purification, decomposition of dyes in wastewater. Anatase, brookite and rutile are three crystalline forms of titania. Among these crystalline forms, anatase TiO2 is attracting more attention for its vital use as pigments, gas sensors, catalysts, photocatalysts in response to its application in environmental related problems of pollution control and photovoltaics. It has found extensive applications in heterogenous photocatalysis for removing organic pollutants from air and water and also in hydrogen production from photocatalytic water-spliting. Its use popular because of its low cost, low toxicity, high chemical and thermal stability. But one of the critical limitations of TiO2 as photocatalyst is its poor response to visible light. Several attempts have been made to modify the surface and electronic structures of TiO2 to enhance its activity in the visible light region such as noble metal depositions, metal ion loading, cationic and anionic doping and sensitisation. In this study, ZnO doped photocatalytic nano-TiO2 in rutile form was successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method. In order to measure the efficiency of the synthesized structure, comparisons were made with another photocatalytic nano TiO2 structure in anatase form which has been also synthesized by hydrothermal method. Physical and chemical properties of the materials synthesized were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS and FT-IR. Comparisons of the applications were made with an UV spectrophotometer. Photocatalytic properties of the synthesized materials were invastigated with degradability of the indigo carmine solution. Synthesized materials were coated onto the surface of ceramic beads by dipping method. Degradability of the 1 ppm textile dye slack solution was investigated with the interaction of the coated beads under UV light. As a result of the analysis of the samples, it was observed that indigo carmine textile dye solution was degraded and the concentration of the solution was decreased under UV light. It is known that anatase structure shows twice photocatalytic property than rutile structure. However, it was observed that ZnO has increased the photocatalytic property whether it made the structure rutile. For the investigation of antibacterial properties, zinc oxide doped nano-TiO2 in different molar ratios were added to day cream. It was observed that higher ratios zinc oxide doped nano TiO2 prevented bacterial growth.