Foundry Sands as Supports for Heterogeneous Photocatalysts

Abstract

Foundry sands from the iron foundry industry were employed as a support source for photocatalysts. TiCl4 was used as the titanium precursor in the preparation of the supported photocatalysts. The solids were characterized by scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy in the ultraviolet range, small-angle X-ray scattering, nitrogen porosimetry, and zeta potential measurements. The prepared catalyst systems contained Ti, Al, Fe, K, Na, or Cu. All systems were also found to contain carbon. The systems were evaluated in the photodegradation of rhodamine B. For comparative reasons, P25 (Degussa) was also employed as a catalyst. Among the tested systems, the greatest percent dye degradation occurred with ultraviolet (65 %) and visible (38 %) radiation, whereas under the same conditions, the commercial P25 catalyst achieved 93 and 14 % degradation, respectively, for the ultraviolet and visible radiation.