Tetra-n-butyl titanate was used to synthesize a precursor titania
(TiO2) gel by sol-gel method, which was successfully employed to
prepare TiO2 powders by calcinating at variant temperatures. The
anatase phase TiO2 was obtained at 500?C according to XRD analysis,
which was selected as the support for nanogold catalysts. The
reduction of HAuCl4 by tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium
chloride (THPC) was used to immobilize Au nanoparticles on the
as-prepared anatase TiO2, which was compared with the normal
deposition-precipitation (DP) method. SEM and UV-vis analyses
indicate that the THPC-Au/TiO2 has a larger loading of Au and
stronger photocatalytic activity than the DP-Au/TiO2, which offers
a simple way to prepare strong Au/TiO2 photocatalysts with low
Au consumption.
