Advantages of Hydrothermal Synthesis to Produce Tunable TiO2 Nanomicro Sized Photocatalysts and Their Effect in Lignin Degradation

Abstract

Studies on photocatalytic degradation of lignin are scarce, even though it is an effective method for treatment of industrial effluents. In the present work, an advanced oxidation process (AOPs), leading to the photodegradation of lignin aqueous solutions, is proposed by using microstructured (T-MT) and nanostructured (T-NT) titanium dioxide compounds. Hydrothermal synthesis, in accordance with an experimental factorial design considering time of synthesis, NaOH concentration and synthesis temperature, was used to produce tunable TiO 2 photocatalysts for further study of its effects on the degradation of lignin. Photocatalytic reactions were conducted in a micro reactor batch system under UV irradiation. The catalysts were analyzed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface area and porosity analyzer (BET), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. In order to optimize the yield reaction, an experimental factorial design was performed. According to our results, nanostructured TiO 2 consisting in different structural features and light absorption properties were produced using this method. It is shown that T-MT and T-NT compounds exhibit a wide range of values, for the kinetic parameters, in photoinduced degradation of methylene blue (MB) and lignin.