A laser flash photolysis study of the photochemical activity of a synthesised ZrTiO4 - Comparison with parent oxides, TiO2 and ZrO2

The photochemical activity of a prepared zirconium titanate, ZrTiO4, sample has been studied by laser flash photolysis. A short duration laser pulse w as used to produce electron-hole pairs; methyl viologen was employed as ele ctron scavenger. The same procedure has been employed to estimate the photo chemical activity of two: home prepared single oxides, TiO2, (hp) and ZrO2 (hp) and for a commercially available TiO2, (Degussa, P-25). Our results fu rther showed the potential of the laser flash photolysis technique to estim ate the photosensitivity of semiconductor oxides and predict a poor photoac tivity for the TiO2 (hp) sample in spite of this sample exhibiting (by XRD technique) the anatase as the unique phase. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.