Synergistic effect of the mixed phase in titania photocatalyst on its performance compared to the pristine phases has been investigated in terms of the bulk and interfacial behavior of the phases in contact. The experiments were conducted under both UV and visible light irradiations. The photo- activity variation has been correlated with the changes in the ratio of anatase to rutile phases (A/R ratio), and their unique response to UV and visible radiations. For this, a set of pure (rutile or anatase)and mixed phases (with varying A/R ratio) titania nanoparticles were synthesized. The physico-chemical characterization was done using SEM, XRD, EDAX, UV-DRS, PL and FTIR analyses. The activity of catalysts in UV and visible light was investigated by monitoring the degradation of phenol. The results show that the mixed phase catalysts show enhanced photoactivity compared to pristine phases across the irradiation wavelength range. Further, the catalysts having a narrow range of high A/R ratio (41) around 5.0 show high UV activity while those having low A/R ratio (o1) around 0.5 show high visible light activity. A mechanism is proposed based on the influence of interfacial phenomena under both UV and visible light irradiations. It explains the differences observed in the behavior of the catalyst irradiated with UV and visible light and also the high activity of mixed phase catalysts compared to the pristine phases across the wavelength ranges.

Silver sensitized titanium vanadium mixed metal (Ag/TiV) oxides were prepared by nanoscale synthesis route employing the sol–gel technique. It led to the development of 5–20 nm particles with predominantly anatase phase. The physicochemical characterization of the particles was done by X-ray diffractrometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–Vis DRS) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). The reflectance spectrum shows a red shift in the optical response of the catalyst with its band gap absorption upper limit covering a large portion of the visible spectrum, i.e. labsZ700 nm. The performance of the materials was examined under laboratory visible light and solar radiation exposure. The rate of degradation of methylene blue (MB)and phenol exhibited an increase of about six and four times, respectively, in visible light compared to Degussa P-25. This may be attributed to the increased absorption due to Ti–Vmixed metal oxides, favorable electron transfer in the anatase–rutile mixed phase coupled with silver’s scavenging action and reduced electron–hole recombination thereon.