Abstract
(1) Background: The shrinkage of water resources, as well as the deterioration of its quality as a result of industrial human activities, requires a comprehensive approach relative to its protection. Advanced oxidation processes show high potential for the degradation of organic pollutants in water and wastewater. TiO2 is the most popular photocatalyst because of its oxidizing ability, chemical stability and low cost. The major drawback of using it in powdered form is the difficulty of separation from the reaction mixture. The solution to this problem may be immobilization on a support (glass beads, molecular sieves, etc.). In order to avoid these difficulties, the authors propose to prepare a catalyst as a titanium plate covered with an oxide layer obtained with laser treatment. (2) Methods: In the present work, we generated titanium oxide structures using a cheap and fast method based on femtosecond laser pulses. The structurized plates were tested in the reaction of methylene blue (MB) degradation under UVA irradiation (365 nm). The photocatalytic activity and kinetic properties for the degradation of MB are provided. (3) Results: Studies of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirm a titanium oxide layer with laser-induced generated structures that are called “spikes” and “herringbones”. The structurized plates were effective photocatalysts, and their activity depends on the structure of the oxide layer (spike and herringbone). (4) Conclusions: The immobilization of the catalyst on a solid support can be performed in a fast and reproducible manner by using the technique of laser ablation. The layers obtained with this method have been shown to have catalytic properties.
Highlights
Scanning electron microscope (SEM, Vega3, Tescan, Brno, Czech Republic) operating at 30 kV and equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray detector (EDS, Oxford Instruments, High Wycombe, UK) operating at 15 kV was used to obtain the images of morphology and elemental composition of prepared surfaces
The surface of Ti plates was modified by using one-step process and ultrafast and relatively inexpensive methods based on using linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulses
A thorough photocatalytic characterization was performed by using methylene blue (MB) as a model pollutant
Summary
There has been great concern over many serious environmental problems. The most important is the safety of water. There is a wide range of chemical and biological contaminants that may be found in water. The need for clean water places increased stress on the removal of organic pollutants and toxic heavy metal ions from water sources. There are several processes performed in order to improve water quality, such as chemical, physical, physico-chemical and biological processes. Chemical disinfection, oxidation, advanced oxidation processes, and ion exchange [1]
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