Facile Growth and Characterization of TiO2 Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Degradation of 2,3-Dichlorophenol: Experimental Optimization and Comparison with Commercial TiO2

Abstract

This paper reports the facile synthesis and characterizations of TiO2 nanoparticles by simple sol-gel ultrasonication followed by annealing process. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized in terms of their morphological and structural properties and utilized as efficient photocatalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of 2,3-dichlorophenol (2,3-DCP). The as-synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles were annealed at 350 degrees C for various time intervals (3-5 h) and by morphological and photocatalytic performances, it was found that the nanoparticles annealed for 5 hrs exhibits best morphological and photocatalytic properties. To optimize the photocatalytic reaction parameters, several experiments based on catalyst dose (0.25-1.00 g/L), pH of the solution (pH = 3-11) and initial concentration (10-100 mg/L) have been performed using commercially available TiO2 (PC-105). Under optimized conditions, the photocatalytic performance of synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles and TiO2 (PC-105) was compared and it was found that the synthesized nanoparticles exhibits better photocatalytic properties as compared to the commercially available TiO2 (PC-105).