Microwave synthesised Pd–TiO(2) for photocatalytic ammonia production

Palladium doped anatase TiO(2) nanoparticles were synthesised by a rapid (3 min) one-pot microwave synthesis technique at low temperature and pressure. After being fully characterised by SEM, XRD, Raman, XPS and EDX, photocatalytic nitrate reduction and ammonia production were studied over various dopant levels between 0–3.97 wt% Pd and compared to similar previous literature. Improved yields of ammonia were observed with most dopant levels when compared to non-doped microwave synthesised TiO(2) with 2.65 wt% found to be the optimum dopant level producing 21.2 μmol NH(3). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of TiO(2) and Pd–TiO(2) photoelectrodes revealed improvements in charge transfer characteristics at high Pd dopant levels.