Study on the preparation of photothermal catalyst for toluene degradation from spent batteries

Abstract

This work produced a novel photothermal catalyst TiO2-CeO2@S-AZMB for toluene degradation, based on waste zinc-manganese batteries. Using a direct ball milling technique, the catalyst was created by mixing nanoscale TiO2 and CeO2 with active metals extracted from wasted batteries. The catalyst demonstrated excellent photothermal catalytic performance at a material addition ratio of 3:6:1, with S-AZMB, TiO2, and CeO2 at that ratio. At this point, the reaction temperature was 110 °C, the light intensity in the reaction system was 32 mW/cm2, and the toluene elimination efficiency was high. Toluene elimination effectiveness could be as high as 94.34 %. The catalyst greatly lowered the initiation temperature of catalytic combustion in addition to increasing thermocatalysis and photocatalysis efficiency through the photothermal synergistic effect. A novel theoretical foundation for the recycling of used batteries and the advancement of photothermal catalytic technology was also provided by the investigation of the photo-absorption properties and photothermal conversion mechanism of the catalysts.