Abstract
The thermocatalytic, photocatalytic and photothermo-catalytic oxidation of some volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 2-propanol, ethanol and toluene, was investigated over brookite TiO2-CeO2 composites. The multi-catalytic approach based on the synergistic effect between solar photocatalysis and thermocatalysis led to the considerable decrease in the conversion temperatures of the organic compounds. In particular, in the photothermo-catalytic runs, for the most active samples (TiO2-3 wt% CeO2 and TiO2-5 wt% CeO2), the temperature at which 90% of VOC conversion occurred was about 60 °C, 40 °C and 20 °C lower than in the thermocatalytic tests for 2-propanol, ethanol and toluene, respectively. Furthermore, the addition of cerium oxide to brookite TiO2 favored the total oxidation to CO2 already in the photocatalytic tests at room temperature. The presence of small amounts of cerium oxide allowed to obtain efficient brookite-based composites facilitating the space charge separation and increasing the lifetime of the photogenerated holes and electrons as confirmed by the characterization measurements. The possibility to concurrently utilize the photocatalytic properties of brookite and the redox properties of CeO2, both activated in the photothermal tests, is an attractive approach easily applicable to purify air from VOCs.
Highlights
Nowadays, high quality clean air for both indoor and outdoor environments is strongly recommended
One of the easy and consolidated approaches to prepare pure brookite is the thermohydrolysis of TiCl4 in aqueous chloride solutions [28,29]
To investigate the change in the physico-chemical properties of brookite due to the addition of cerium oxide, three different composites were prepared with a growing amount of the hosted CeO2 oxide (1 wt%, 3 wt% and 5 wt%)
Summary
High quality clean air for both indoor and outdoor environments is strongly recommended. New and green approaches such as the photocatalytic oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs,), can be considered suitable solutions for an environmental friendly air purification [1]. The possibility of an efficient use of sunlight under mild conditions leads to consider photocatalytic applications as an optimal alternative for the removal of dangerous pollutants (VOCs) from the air of our living spaces. Titanium dioxide (TiO2 , titania)-based photocatalysis has played an important role, TiO2 being an active component of paints, cements, building materials and self-cleaning products [2,3,4,5,6].
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