Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Vol.574, No.1, 71-75, 2004
Sonoelectrochemical methods of preparing silver-coated TiO2 nanoparticles with extremely high coverage
In this study, we report the first sonoelectrochemical methods of preparing elemental Ag(0)-coated TiO2 nanoparticles. The coverage of Ag shells in the prepared nanocomposites is 0.93. First, Ag substrates were cycled in a deoxygenated aqueous solution containing 0.1 M HCl and 1 mM TiO2 nanoparticles from -0.3 to +0.3 V vs Ag\AgCl at 5 mV/s for 30 cycles. After this process, positively charged Ag-coated TiO2 nanoparticles were formed in the solutions. Then a cathodic overpotential of 0.6 V from the open circuit potential (ocp) of ca. 0.68 V vs Ag\AgCl was applied under sonication to synthesize elemental Ag(0)-coated TiO2 nanoparticles. The extremely high coverage of 0.93 in this work is notable, as compared with other methods to prepare metal-coated TiO2 nanoparticles. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.