Synthesis of mesoporous Ag/α-FeO/TiO heterostructures with enhanced and accelerated photo/-catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol.

4-Nitrophenol (4-NP) is reported to originate disadvantageous effects on the human body collected from industrial pollutants; therefore, the detoxification of 4-NP in aqueous contamination is strongly recommended. In this study, the heterojunction mesoporous α-FeO/TiO modulated with diverse Ag percentages has been constructed via a sol-gel route in the occurrence of a soft template P123. The formation of biphasic crystalline TiO anatase and brookite phases has been successfully achieved with the average 10 nm particle sizes.