New industrial titania photocatalysts for the solar detoxification of water containing various pollutants

Abstract

A new series of titania industrial photocatalysts have been elaborated by Millennium Inorganic Chemicals and were denoted Millennium-PC/10, PC/25 and PC/50 with respective specific surface areas equal to 11, 23 and 43m2g−1. Their photocatalytic activities have been determined and compared in the solar pilot CPC-photoreactor at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria (PSA) (Spain) in the photocatalytic degradation of four different representative pollutants (4-chlorophenol, nitrobenzene, 2-chlorobenzoic acid and hydrobutanedioic (malic) acid), whose degradation pathways had previously been elucidated in laboratory experiments with artificial light, using titania Degussa P-25 as a reference photocatalyst. The study concerned the influence of (i) the nature of organic pollutants, (ii) the surface area and (iii) the concentration of suspended TiO2. The affinity of the pollutants for TiO2 and the presence of heteroatoms in the reactant molecules intervened on the activities of Millennium-PCs when compared to Degussa P-25. The higher the affinity of the organic pollutants for titania, the higher the efficiency of Millennium-PC/10 photocatalyst calibrated on the initial rate of pollutant disappearance. The degradation pathways were found similar for both photocatalysts and the primary steps of the degradation for the different types of molecules were discussed.4-Chlorophenol (4-CP), a model pollutant for waste waters, was then chosen for the study of the influence of the surface areas and of the concentration of Millennium-PC photocatalysts. The initial apparent rate constants of 4-CP degradation in presence of all Millennium-PC catalysts were all higher than that obtained with Degussa P-25. When choosing the total organic carbon (TOC) disappearance rate as an overall kinetic parameter, Millennium-PC/10 and PC/25 appeared as less active than Degussa P-25, with longer solar exposures (by about 10%) necessary to obtain a total mineralisation. However, Millennium-PC/50 resulted as the best catalyst in all cases. The optimal slurry concentration (gl−1) has been determined for each Millennium TiO2 sample.While the optimum of Degussa P-25 had previously been found equal to 0.2gl−1, higher amounts of Millennium-PC samples were required. A twice higher concentration (0.4gl−1) increased the activities by factors equal to 1.2 and 1.5 for Millennium-PC/50 and PC/10, respectively. The rate constants of disappearance of intermediates and of TOC were quantitatively affected by factors in agreement with a multiple consecutive reactions model. In any case, titania Millennium-PC/50 appeared as the best catalyst among all those tested, including Degussa P-25.