Study of the photocatalytic and antibacterial activity of tio2 powder synthesized by microwave-assisted sol-gel method

TiO2 powder was prepared by microwave-assisted sol-gel method. The powder was refluxed at 180 W for 1, 2 and 3 h and dried at 180 W for 1 h by a conventional microwave oven. Several analytical techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and surface area measurement (BET) were employed to characterize the synthesized powder. Photocatalytic activity of the powder was examined via the degradation of methylene blue (MB) solution under UV irradiation for a certain time. The efficiency of antibacterial activity was evaluated by the inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The results showed that only anatase TiO2 was observed and the as-prepared powder exhibited the agglomeration of spherical nanoparticles with crystallite sizes of 20.7, 13.8 and 9.3 nm when the refluxed time was 1, 2 and 3 h, respectively. The highest efficiency for the photocatalytic and antibacterial activities was 66.68 and 91.67%, respectively, belonging to those powders using the reflux time of 3 h.