Abstract
In this study, titanium dioxide nanotubes were prepared by electrochemical anodization technique and modified with an aqueous solution of FeCl3 using hydrothermal synthesis method to control the amount and distribution of iron compounds on the anatase TiO2 nanotubes. The objective was to synthesize immobilized FeOOH@TiO2 or Fe2O3@TiO2 photocatalysts designed for the flow-through reactor systems; to investigate thermal treatment effect on the photocatalytic efficiency; to determine appropriate Fe-compounds concentration for the maximum photocatalytic activity improvement, and to explain the mechanism responsible for the enhancement. The photocatalysts were tested for the degradation of 1H-benzotriazole in water under UV/solar light irradiation. Up to two times increase in the photocatalytic activity was obtained when TiO2 nanotubes were modified with 0.8 mM Fe. At higher Fe concentrations (8 mM and 80 mM), the photocatalytic activity of the given photocatalysts decreased. To confirm the formation of FeOOH or Fe2O3 species, and to clarify the mechanism of photoactivity, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy (RS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and UV-Vis spectroscopy were used.
Highlights
In an ever growing field of photo catalysis, titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) is one of the most prominent materials used to date
In this research we studied the influence of both FeOOH and Fe2 O3 modifications on photocatalytic response of TiO2 nanotubes for degradation of 1H-benzotriazole
Structural phase composition of the samples was examined by confocal micro-Raman spectroscopy, the morphology was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and crystal structure was examined by the grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), while optical properties were studied using UV-Vis spectroscopy
Summary
In an ever growing field of photo catalysis, titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) is one of the most prominent materials used to date. The foundation was set by Fujishima [1] in 1972 for their research on water splitting based only on irradiating the TiO2 electrode with UV light. With the combination of rising awareness towards human environmental impact, research was initiated towards efficient and cheap materials to be used in air [5] and water [6]. TiO2 occurs in three different polymorphs: rutile, anatase and brookite [7]. While rutile is the most thermodynamically stable polymorph form, one that shows the best impact in photocatalysis is the anatase phase [8]. If TiO2 is irradiated with light containing energy equivalent to 3.2 eV or Catalysts 2020, 10, 1371; doi:10.3390/catal10121371 www.mdpi.com/journal/catalysts
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