Continuous reduction of Ag+ can produce Ag nucleates on the surface of TiO2 forming a Schottky junction between them. The charge-separation generated electrons are partially transferred to the Ag clusters from TiO2[28]. Oxidation and reduction processes are carried on at the surface of TiO2 and Ag, respectively, as illustrated in Figure 3. Consequently,

the reduction on the surface of Ag enables the crystal nucleus to grow up. After Panobinostat the photoreduction, the sulfurization reaction of Ag clusters occurs spontaneously, owing to the low reaction Gibbs energy of −47.1 kJ/mol [29]. (1) (2) (3) (4) Figure 3 Schematic illustration for charge separation between TiO 2 and Ag, and redox reaction on them. Photoreduction rate of Ag+ by TiO2 in ethanol solution is so rapid that the electrode turned to silvery-white within 3 min after immersing FTO/TiO2 https://www.selleckchem.com/products/apo866-fk866.html in the solution. To verify the effect of photocatalytic properties of TiO2 on the reduction process, the ethanol solution containing Ag+ was irradiated in the same condition but in the absence of TiO2, and no silver was observed in 10 h. Similar results were also observed when immersing FTO/TiO2 in the Ag+ solution in the dark, consistent with the proposed photoreduction mechanism. Figure 4 shows XRD patterns of FTO/TiO2 (a), FTO/TiO2/Ag (b), and FTO/TiO2/Ag2S (c) electrodes. XRD patterns of FTO/TiO2 electrode reveal

that the synthesized TiO2 NRs are tetragonal rutile structure (JCPDS card no. 21–1276). The enhanced (101) peak indicates the NRs are well-crystallized and grow in consistent orientation. In the XRD pattern Staurosporine of FTO/TiO2/Ag electrode (b), all peaks indexed as TiO2 crystal have been weakened while the outstanding diffraction peaks of silver (silver-3C, syn JCPDS card no. 04–0783) emerged. This proves the large coverage of crystallized Ag on the surface of TiO2 nanostructure as a result of the photoreduction process. As compared with curve b, the XRD pattern of FTO/TiO2/Ag2S electrode shows five diffraction peaks which agreed well with acanthite Ag2S (JCPDS card no. 14–0072), suggesting

a conversion of Ag to Ag2S. Additionally, the outstanding peaks of Ag in curve b are not observed in curve c which indicates that the reaction between Ag and S has been completed thoroughly. Figure 4 XRD patterns. FTO/TiO2 (a), FTO/TiO2/Ag (b), and FTO/TiO2/Ag2S (c) electrodes. Figure 5 displays a SEM image of a top view of FTO/TiO2/Ag2S electrode with 10-min photoreduction (a) and a TEM image of single NR stripped from the FTO/TiO2/Ag2S electrode (b). The two images clearly show that TiO2 NRs are coated by a layer of Ag2S crystallites not only on the top surface but also on the four side faces. The top view of FTO/TiO2/Ag2S electrode shows that the small steps within the top face of TiO2 NR observed in SEM image of FTO/TiO2 electrode (Figure 2a) are invisible due to the coverage of Ag2S crystallites.