Comparison of TiO2 nanowires and TiO2 nanoparticles for photodegradation of resorcinol as endocrine model

Abstract

In this contribution, comparison of TiO2 nanowires (TiO2 NWs) and TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) for photodegradation of resorcinol as endocrine model was extensively carried out. The results indicated that X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the TiO2 NWs exhibited brookite and anatase phases; whereas, the prepared TiO2 NPs is pure anatase phase. TEM images of TiO2 NWs exhibit clear nanowire structures with the 2 μm length and diameter of 50–100 nm, while the TiO2 NPs particle sizes are 5–10 nm. The prepared TiO2 NWs and TiO2 NPs were compared with commercial photocatalyst TiO2-P25 by the determination of their photocatalytic performances. The photocatalytic efficiencies of TiO2 NWs, TiO2 NPs, and TiO2 P25 are amounted to be 98.7%, 98.4%, and 83% within 3-h illumination. However, the photodegradation rates TiO2 NPs, TiO2 NWs, and TiO2-P25 are 12.24 × 10−7 mol L−1 min−1, 10.79 × 10−7 mol L−1 min−1, and 5.77 × 10−7 mol L−1 min−1, i.e., the photodegradation rates TiO2 NPs is slightly faster than TiO2 NWs, and they are significantly greater 2 times than that of commercial photocatalysts TiO2-P25. The apparent rate constant k (min−1) value of TiO2 NPs and TiO2 NWs is higher than that of commercial TiO2-P25 for 3.3 and 3.25 times, respectively. From the economic point of view, TiO2 NPs calcined at 400 °C are chosen to be the optimum for saving energy in the preparation step without loss of photocatalytic efficiency.