Influences of pH value in deposition-precipitation synthesis process on Pt-doped TiO2 catalysts for photocatalytic oxidation of NO

This work has been undertaken to study the influences of pH value on the characteristics and activity of photocatalyst by deposition-precipitation method during its preparation process. A series of Pt-modified TiO2 were prepared by deposition-precipitation method at different pH values as well as wet impregnation method, and characterized by XRD, XPS, TEM, UV-Vis and photoluminescence (PL). It was found that the catalysts had the highest photocatalytic activity for NO conversion when pH value was kept at around 7. And the sample prepared by deposition-precipitation method showed higher activity than that by impregnation method. This was mainly due to their high value in highly-dispersed platinum oxides (PtOx) content on the surface of the catalysts. The results from UV-Vis absorption showed that highest absorbance was obtained for Pt/TiO2 prepared at pH values of around 7. And PL spectra results indicated that the recombination rate of photogenerated electrons and holes of the samples prepared by deposition-precipitation method was lower than that prepared by impregnation method. And in the zeta potential study, the pH values for the isoelectric point of the preparing slurry of 0.05 wt.%Pt/TiO2 and 0.5 wt.%Pt/TiO2 were determined to be 6.5−8.5, which further confirmed the enrichment of PtOx dopants for the catalysts repapered when pH value was around 7.