Electrokinetic Properties of Mesoporous Vitreous Membranes Doped by Silver-Silver Halides

Silver/silver halide materials are considered as efficient and highly stable plasmonic photocatalysts for the organic pollutant degradation and hydrogen evolution from water splitting under solar irradiation, and they possess promising antibacterial activity. Ordered mesoporous silica materials including porous glasses are considered as the most promising template for silver-containing structures. In the present work, Ag/AgHal-doped (Hal = Cl, Br) vitreous membranes on a base of the mesoporous glasses were prepared via step-by-step single-stage impregnation procedure. The chemical and phase composition of the modified membranes were identified by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the X-ray diffraction and the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The structure and morphology of inner membrane space were studied by the scanning electron microscopy. Electrokinetic properties of the silver-containing vitreous membranes were determined by the differential method and the streaming potential method. The inner membrane space is modified unevenly with appearance of the clearly defined regions with different silver content. The formation of the Ag/AgCl clusters along with the individual nanoparticles over thickness of the 1-mm membrane with mean pore radius of 23 nm was detected. The modification of the pore space by Ag-containing structures and the type of halogen ion almost do not affect the electrochemical behavior of the mesoporous vitreous membranes.