Ordered Titania Nanotubes Loaded with Ligand-free Gold Nanoparticles: An Efficient Photocatalyst for Toluene Degradation

A fast and clean protocol that allow to load ligand-free Au nanoparticles on ordered titania nanotubes film was developed. Small Au nanoparticles were synthesized by metal vapor synthesis without any additional stabilizers and the nanotube titania films were obtained by electrochemical-anodizing. No further purification steps or thermal treatments were required after deposition. The nanostructured composite films were characterized morphologically with SEM and TEM and finally tested for toluene photo-degradation in air at near-real conditions. The gold loading enhance the photocatalytic efficiency doubling the basal activity of the bare nanostructured titania films