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

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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.