Photocatalytic Performance and Mechanism Research of Ag/HSTiO(2) on Degradation of Methyl Orange

[Image: see text] The Sol–gel method is successfully used to prepare high specific surface area TiO(2) (HSTiO(2)). Then, the photodeposition method is used to composite silver particles with HSTiO(2). X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, and UV–vis spectroscopy are used to characterize the Ag/HSTiO(2) nanocomposites. It can be concluded that the prepared TiO(2) has a large specific surface area, reaching 125.5 m(2) g(–1). Additionally, the addition of silver particles successfully broadens the photoresponse range from the UV region to the visible light region. In order to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of Ag/HSTiO(2), we conducted the methyl orange degradation test. The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of the sample is significantly higher than that of pure TiO(2).