Photodegradation of 4-aminoantipyrine over nano-titania heterojunctions using solar and LED irradiation sources

Abstract

The non-doped and non-metal tri-doped TiO2 were prepared and used as photocatalysts activated by low-cost and low powered irradiation sources (LED) for the degradation of 4-aminoantipyrine (4-AAP) for the first time. The nano-spindle-like brookite phase with high-quality was hydrothermally synthesized at 200 °C for 20 h, in the absence of glycine. The nano-spherical-like anatase mixed with nano-rod-like brookite TiO2 were synthesized using different molarities of glycine. The N-C-S tridoped B/A TiO2 was synthesized by mixing optimum non-doped TiO2 with thiourea followed by calcination at 450 °C. The findings exhibited that the absorption edges of the obtained TiO2 shifted from UV to visible region as a result of non-metal tri-doping. The N-C-S tri-doped/TiO2 was confirmed by XPS analysis. The effect of pH values, the catalyst loadings and 4-AAP concertation were performed for degradation of 4-AAP employing solar and LED irradiation sources (UV-A and visible light). The complete degradation of 4-AAP (pH 3, 0.02 g L−1) under solar, UV-A LED, and visible light sources was achieved using N-C-S-tri-doped B/A TiO2 photocatalyst (0.4 g L−1). PL spectra confirmed that tri-doped TiO2 hetrojunction reduce the e-/h+ recombination.