Photocatalytic Degradation of Nitro and Chlorophenols Using Doped and Undoped Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

Pure and Ag-TiO2nanoparticles were synthesized, with the metallic doping being done using the Liquid Impregnation (LI) method. The resulting nanoparticles were characterized by analytical methods such as scanning electron micrographs (SEMs), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). XRD analysis indicated that the crystallite size ofTiO2was 27 nm to 42 nm while the crystallite size of Ag-TiO2was 11.27 nm to 42.52 nm. The photocatalytic activity of pureTiO2and silver dopedTiO2was tested by photocatalytic degradation ofp-nitrophenol as a model compound. Ag-TiO2nanoparticles exhibited better results (98% degradation) as compared to pureTiO2nanoparticles (83% degradation) in 1 hour for the degradation ofp-nitrophenol. Ag-TiO2was further used for the photocatalytic degradation of 2,4-dichlorphenol (99% degradation), 2,5-dichlorophenol (98% degradation), and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (96% degradation) in 1 hour. The degree of mineralization was tested by TOC experiment indicating that 2,4-DCP was completely mineralized, while 2,5-DCP was mineralized upto 95 percent and 2,4,6-TCP upto 86 percent within a period of 2 hours.