Abstract
We report on a new approach for the synthesis of TiO2-pillared montmorillonite, where the pillars exhibit a high degree of crystallinity (nanocrystals) representing a mixture of anatase and rutile phases. The structures exhibit improved adsorption and photocatalytic activity as a result of hydrothermally activated intercalation of titanium polyhydroxo complexes (i.e., TiCl4 hydrolysis products) in a solution with a concentration close to the sol formation limit. The materials, produced at various annealing temperatures from the intercalated samples, were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)/thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements, and liquefied nitrogen adsorption/desorption. The photocatalytic activity of the TiO2-pillared materials was studied using the degradation of anionic (methyl orange, MO) and cationic (rhodamine B, RhB) dyes in water under UV irradiation. The combined effect of adsorption and photocatalysis resulted in removal of 100% MO and 97.5% RhB (with an initial concentration of 40 mg/L and a photocatalyst-sorbent concentration of 1 g/L) in about 100 minutes. The produced TiO2-pillared montmorillonite showed increased photocatalytic activity as compared to the commercially available photocatalyst Degussa P25.
Highlights
Titanium dioxide in its nanometer-sized form is one of the most promising modern photocatalysts [1]
The basal distance d001 is increased from 1.3 nm to 3.8 nm, which indicates the penetration of polycations into the interlayer space of MM
High values of d001, as observed previously in [22,23], are attributed by Sahel et al [24] to not just simple intercalation of titanium hydroxo complexes, and to the existence of a certain porous structure associated with the aggregation of pillars in the interlayer space of MM
Summary
Titanium dioxide in its nanometer-sized form is one of the most promising modern photocatalysts [1]. It is possible to achieve increased values of specific surface area for the pillared samples and high degree of dispersion and crystallinity for TiO2 in the MM structure, enhancing photocatalytic activity.
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