Adil Alshoaibi1
King Faisal University1
Semiconductor nano photocatalysis has considered a promising methodology for polluted water remediation. The<br/>electrons and holes’ high recombination rate and low reaction rate have obstructed their large-scale applications. Thus,<br/>heterogeneous nano photocatalysts are needed for promoting their practical applications. Herein, anatase nanoparticles<br/>(ANPs) are synthesized and heat-treated within two-time intervals of 1 h and 2 h at 300 °C by sol-gel method and doped<br/>with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) at room temperature (29 °C) owing to photocatalytic application. Vapor pressure<br/>scanning electron microscopy (VPSEM) shows the porous and granular localized homogeneous surface of Au-ANPs<br/>before and after heat treatment. The average nanoparticles diameter is calculated as 4.7 nm and after 2 h heat treatment it<br/>increased up to 4.9 nm. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method show that the Au-<br/>ANPs possessed low average surface roughness (Ra) ~ 3 nm, large surface area (SA) ~ 288 m2/g, and pore size<br/>distribution (PSD) 1.81 nm, respectively. Whereas Au-ANPs/2 h revealed Ra around 5 nm, SA ~ 145 m2/g, and PSD ~<br/>2.37 nm. All three nano photocatalysts exhibited thermal stability at ≤400 °C by thermogravimetric analysis. The Au-<br/>ANPs/2 h exhibited high photocatalytic activity with degradation of PR dye of 94% (k = 0.01 min−1, under ultraviolet<br/>radiation) after 280 min of reaction.