Electrophoretic deposition of hydrothermally synthesised Ag–TiO2 hybrid nanoparticles onto 3-D Ni filters

Ag–TiO2 hybrid nano-powders were synthesised by hydrothermal method (HS) at 180 °C for 2 h. TEM and AFM analyses have shown that Ag nanoparticles embedded within the coarser TiO2 particles have a spherical shape with a diameter of 7 nm whilst the size of the TiO2 nanoparticles is found to be around 40 nm. It is also shown that the calcined (500 °C for 1 h) hybrid composite particles result in the formation of anatase TiO2. The synthesised Ag–TiO2 nanopowders were dispersed in ethanol to obtain stable colloidal suspensions and used to coat Ni-based filters using electrophoretic deposition (EPD) using an applied voltage of 30 V for 2 min. Overall, it is shown that hydrothermal processing is an effective way of synthesising nano-sized Ag–TiO2 hybrid powders in a short time and EPD is a good way to get full coating onto 3-D Ni-based filters if stable suspensions are used.

► Ag-TiO2 hybrid nano-powders were synthesized by hydrothermal method which results in the formation of Ag nanoparticles (7 nm) embedded within the coarser TiO2 particles (40 nm). ► The synthesized Ag-TiO2 nano-powders were dispersed in ethanol to obtain stable colloidal suspensions and used to coat Ni-based filters. ► It is shown that EPD is a powerful tool to coat 3-D Ni-based filters.