Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants and Anticorrosion of Mild Steel by Vanadium Modified Titanate Nanotubes (X%V‐TiNTs)

Abstract

AbstractThe present work aims to study the anticorrosion and the photodegradation properties of titanate nanotubes (TiNTs) and vanadium doped‐titanate nanotubes (V‐TiNTs). Moreover, this article seeks to investigate the effect of doping TiNTs by vanadium species at different amount (2, 5 and 10 wt %). The raw materials (i.e:TiO2 and V2O5‐TiO2) are obtained by a sol gel process, while the hydrothermal treatment is chosen to achieve the hollow structure. The structural evolutions and morphological characteristics of materials have performed using various techniques such as: Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X‐ray (MEB/EDS), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), UV‐Visible in Reflection Diffuse spectroscopy (RD/UV‐Vis) and Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. However, the anticorrosion properties of the synthesized nanotubes are evaluated on mild steel corrosion in 1 N HCl using a weight loss method. All materials showed a potential inhibitor effect (up to 90 %) depending on the vanadium percentage and the inhibitor concentration. The photodegradation activity of the prepared materials is evaluated in the photodegradation of two organic pollutants: Methylene Blue (MB) and Malachite Green (MG) under UV‐Visible irradiation. The obtained results underlined the improvement of photocatalytic activity of TiNTs by vanadium species. A conversion rate up to 96 % is achieved at reduced time. Therefore, the prepared materials could be suitable for the anticorrosion of mild steel and the photodegradation of organic pollutants.