Abstract
Photocatalysts have potential for many applications including environmental remediation and selective catalytic transformations requiring decreased energy consumption. This study presents a systematic approach for the synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of titania-supported silver-based bimetallic nanoparticles. Titania was selected as a support due to its ability to form electron-hole pairs in the presence of appropriate radiation. This process is expected to be enhanced in the presence of silver-based bimetallic through the visible light absorption of its surface plasmon resonance. This work has been described the synthesis of silver-based bimetallic nanoparticles using colloid chemistry and the subsequent immobilization onto titania to form composite photocatalytic materials. The photocatalysts are characterized by electron microscopy, nitrogen physisorption, and x-ray diffraction. The work will also describe computational modeling of the silver-based particles surface plasmon resonance features. The results will be applied to photocatalytic environmental remediation.