Photocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanoparticles: effect of thermal annealing under various gaseous atmospheres.

The structure, composition and photocatalytic activity of TiO(2) nanoparticles annealed in various gas atmospheres (N(2), NH(3) and H(2)) were studied in this work. The effect of treatment on crystal structure, particle size, chemical composition and optical absorbance were assessed by means of x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and diffuse optical reflectance/transmittance measurements, respectively. Photocatalytic properties of the materials were evaluated by three different methods: degradation of methyl orange in water, killing of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and photogeneration of radicals in the presence of 3-carboxy-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl pyrrolidine-1-oxyl (PCA) marker molecules. The results indicate that the correlation between pretreatment and the photocatalytic performance depends on the photocatalytic processes and cannot be generalized.