Effect of Surface Fluorination on Photocatalytic Activity of Titania Nano-Powder

Abstract

This work, surface fluorination process was used for improvement photocatalytic activity of TiO2. Photocatalytic activity was observed by degradation of methylene blue (MB). TiO2 nanopowders were prepared by sol-gel technique from titanium-tetraisopropoxide (TTIP): 2-propanal (2-PP) with the ratios of 1:5, 1:15, and 1:30 (V/V) then adjusted pH by nitric acid at 2. The result showed that grain size of TiO2 powder decreased as 2-PP ratio increase. The grain sizes of TiO2 were in the range of 14-25 nm. Photocatalytic activity was considered by characteristic time constant. The results showed that F-TiO2 presented higher photo-degradation than naked TiO2. At 1:30 for TTIP: 2-PP ratio with improvement by surface fluorination (F-TiO2) could degrade MB faster than other samples under weak-UV at irradiation time of 1 hr. The 1:30 sample degraded MB reach to 96%. The results led to conclude that surface fluorination is the good process to improve photocatalytic activity for TiO2.