Synthesis and Characterization of SiO2 Nanoparticles by Sol-Gel Process and Its Degradation of Methylene Blue

Nanomaterials are used for the miniaturization of particular electronic device. But new era of technology demands a cheaper and more commercial method to produce excellent material especially silicon dioxide. The present work deals with the sol-gel synthesis of SiO2 material and also provides a basic understanding of the effect of calcination temperature on the growth of SiO2 by hydrolysis of TEOS with ethanol, deionized water and catalyst mixture. The properties of resulting materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), AFM and optical properties through UV-visible spectroscopy and Photo Luminescence (PL). The XRD study of pure SiO2 with calcination temperature at 300°C shows well crystalline characteristics and having hexagonal crystal structure. SEM results show obtained silica particles were having spherical morphology. The proper temperature the PL intensity was reduced and the shape of the emission spectrum slightly split into sharp peaks. UV-visible absorbance spectra of the silica samples having wide band gap showing absorbance in the ultra violet region. The degradation of methylene blue was selected as a test reaction

to confer the photocatalytic activity of as obtained SiO2 samples. The results showed a strong correlation between the structure evolutions, crystallite size and photo degradation performance of SiO2. Although the photo degradation of silica calcined sample was found faster rate of MB breakdown than that of dried sample under visible irradiation.