Solar photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants from indoor air using novel direct flame combustion based hollow nanocomposite of Pd/Anatase–Rutile TiO2 mixed phase and evaluation of the biocompatibility

Abstract

The conventional methods (calcinations) are used to prepare diverse types of nanoparticles, however, to introduce specific properties for their applications, new strategy is required. Therefore, direct air flame combustion is a new technique utilized to synthesize novel nanoparticles instead of calcinations in the oven. In this work, the air flame combustion was used to prepare a new junction of anatase– rutile (A/R) mixed phase TiO2 deposited with palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs). Herein, an A/R phase junction was obtained by flame combustion of carbon sphere templates. The novel nanocatalyst was characterized using XRD, SEM, TEM, UV–Vis light spectroscopy and SBET method for surface properties. It shows a higher performance during the photocatalytic degradation of formaldehyde gas pollutant under solar irradiation. The enhancement of catalytic activity was found to be 18-fold higher than the commercial TiO2-P25. The results of CO2 generated via the formaldehyde degradation by the novel nanophotocatalyst showed a high photocatalytic efficiency of 60%. Moreover, in the field application, it showed 75% formaldehyde removal when applied in the kitchen indoor air; it reveals also a wide array of antimicrobial activity. Therefore, this system will be more promising in various industrial applications.