Facile fabrication of vanadium sensitized silver titanium oxides (V–Ag/TiO₂) photocatalyst nanocomposite for pollutants removal in river water

Vanadium sensitized silver titanium mixed metal (V–Ag/TiO₂) oxides photocatalyst nanocomposite was prepared by a sol-gel, hydrothermal route. Lattice fringes for both anatase and rutile in its crystalline phase was depicted by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) structural analysis. Surface areas (S_BET) analysis shows that synthesized V–Ag/TiO₂ has a huge surface area of 74.58 m²g^-1, compare to TiO₂ 94.77 m²g^-1, Ag–TiO₂ 89.32 m²g^-1 and V–TiO₂ 82.59 m²g^-1. Optical absorption results demonstrated by UV–Visible Spectroscopy (UV–Vis) shows a reduced bandgap energy of 2.3 eV and a shift in spectrum to the visible light region, enhancing the visible light absorption capacity of the synthesized photocatalyst. Binding energies of species were presented by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image shows the formation of a closely stacked cluster composed of rod-like aggregated particles of non-uniform diameter while Transition Electron Microscope (TEM) shows particle size distribution range between 15 and 25 nm. Synthesized V–Ag/TiO₂ showed tremendous photocatalytic abilities under visible light irradiation as gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis of surface water from Lepelle River Limpopo province of South Africa demonstrate the selective removal of organic pollutant.