Preparation of TiO2/Activated Carbon Composites for Photocatalytic Degradation of RhB under UV Light Irradiation

Baolin Xing,Hui Guo,Changliang Shi,Guangxu Huang,Jianliang Cao,Chuanxiang Zhang,Guiyun Yi,Lunjian Chen

doi:10.1155/2016/8393648

Baolin Xing, Hui Guo + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/8393648

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Abstract

Photocatalysts comprising nanosized TiO2particles on activated carbon (AC) were prepared by a sol-gel method. The TiO2/AC composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, nitrogen adsorption, scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). Their photocatalytic activities were studied through the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) in photocatalytic reactor at room temperature under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation and the effect of loading cycles of TiO2on the structural properties and photocatalytic activity of TiO2/AC composites was also investigated. The results indicate that the anatase TiO2particles with a crystal size of 10–20 nm can be deposited homogeneously on the AC surface under calcination at 500°C. The loading cycle plays an important role in controlling the loading amount of TiO2and morphological structure and photocatalytic activity of TiO2/AC composites. The porosity parameters of these composite photocatalysts such as specific surface area and total pore volume decrease whereas the loading amount of TiO2increases. The TiO2/AC composite synthesized at 2 loading cycles exhibits a high photocatalytic activity in terms of the loading amount of TiO2and as high as 93.2% removal rate for RhB from the 400 mL solution at initial concentration of 2 × 10−5 mol/L under UV light irradiation.

Highlights

Dyes, generated by various manufacture industries such as dyestuffs, textile, paper, food, cosmetics, leather, and plastics, are the most common contaminants in wastewater [1,2,3]
For the TiO2/activated carbon (AC)-1, the Rhodamine B (RhB) removed by adsorption is predominant because of its well-developed porosity, and the final RhB removal rate reaches 82.0%, while the photocatalytic degradation percentage of RhB is only 15.9%, which may be ascribed to the limited TiO2 particles that deposited on the composite photocatalyst
It is found that TiO2/activated carbon (TiO2/AC) by sol-gel method composites can be under calcination at synthesized 500∘C

Summary

Introduction

Dyes, generated by various manufacture industries such as dyestuffs, textile, paper, food, cosmetics, leather, and plastics, are the most common contaminants in wastewater [1,2,3]. As AC possesses a large specific surface area, high adsorption capacity, and suitable pore structure [8, 13, 28], TiO2/AC composites are receiving considerable attention for the degradation of dye-containing wastewater. Synthesized photocatalyst by AC impregnated with TiO2 for the removal of methyl orange from water, and the synergistic effects of adsorption and photocatalytic activity in TiO2/ AC for the degradation of the methyl orange have been found. Among the reported processes for the treatment of the dye-containing wastewater, it has been shown that all kinds of TiO2/AC composites are able to exhibit enhanced photocatalytic performance and increased removal efficiency compared to pure TiO2. The coal-based AC (prepared by KOH activation) was adopted as a support to synthesize the TiO2/AC composites under different loading cycles by sol-gel method. Such molecule is usually present in the wastewater from several industries

Experimental

Results and Discussion

C O Ti Ti

Conclusions