TUNGSTEN OXIDE DOPED TITANIA SUPPORTED ON TUD-C FOR PHOTOCATALYTIC REMOVAL OF METHYLENE BLUE

Abstract

In this work, a series of mesoporous tungsten oxide (WO3) doped titania (TiO2) supported on Technische Universiteit Delft (TUD-C) (WO3-TiO2/TUD-C) were successfully prepared by the sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the samples’ crystallinity decreased after incorporation of WO3-TiO2 onto TUD-C, suggesting the successful incorporating WO3-TiO2 into the framework of TUD-C. N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm analysis indicated that the surface area, pore volume and pore size of WO3-TiO2/TUD-C increased significantly after loading onto TUD-C. The presence of tetrahedron frame structure Ti4+ and polytitanate in all the prepared samples were detected. Besides, all the WO3-TiO2 supported on TUD-C samples showed reduced band gap energy of 3.11 eV. The presence of zeolitic materials in the sample was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, indicating the successfull formation of TUD-C. The Field Emission Scanning Electron Microsope (FESEM) images revealed the WO3-TiO2 were distributed uniformly on the surface of TUD-C. It has been demonstrated that the best photocatalytic activity for removal of methylene blue under UV light irradiation was achieved when WO3-TiO2/TUD-C was prepared with the molar ratio of Si to Ti is equal to 30 (WO3-TiO2/TUD-C(30)). The current research findings suggested that high pore size, surface area and crystallinity were the key factors for the high photocatalytic activity.Keywords: Photocatalyst, titania, TUD-C, tungsten oxide, methylene blue