The photocatalytic activity of Nanopillars-TiO2 thin films was assessed in the degradation of Bromophenol blue (BPB) dye from aqueous solution under batch reactor operations. The thin films were characterized by the XRD, SEM and AFM analytical methods. BET specific surface area and pore sizes were also obtained. The XRD data showed anatase phase of TiO2 particles with average particle size of 25.4 and 21.9 nm, for S1 and S2 catalysts respectively. The SEM and AFM images indicated the catalyst composed with Nanosized pillars of TiO2, evenly distributed on the surface of the substrate. The average height of the pillars was found to be 180 and 40 nm respectively for the S1 and S2 catalyst. The BET specific surface area and pore sizes of S1 and S2 catalyst were found to be 5.217 and 1.420 m2/g and 7.77 and 4.16 nm respectively. The photocatalytic degradation of BPB using the UV light was studied at wide range of physico-chemical parametric studies to determine the mechanism of degradation as well as the practical applicability of the technique. The batch reactor operations were conducted at varied pH (pH 4.0 to 10.0), BPB initial concentration (1.0 to 20.0 mg/L) and presence of several interfering ions, i.e., cadmium nitrate, copper sulfate, zinc chloride, sodium chloride, sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, glycine, oxalic acid and EDTA in the photocatalytic degradation of BPB. The maximum percent removal of BPB was observed at pH 6.0 and a low initial concentration of the pollutant highly favours the photocatalytic degradation using thin films. The presence of several interfering ions suppressed the photocatalytic activity of thin films to some extent. The time dependence photocatalytic degradation of BPB was demonstrated with the pseudo-first-order rate kinetics. Study was further extended with total organic carbon measurement using the TOC (Total Organic Carbon) analysis. This demonstrated an apparent mineralization of BPB from aqueous solutions.
High photocatalytic activity of TiO2 thin films on the electrolytically colored anodic oxide coatings of aluminum