Effect of Calcination Conditions on the Properties and Photoactivity of TiO2 Modified with Biuret

A simple wet impregnation-calcination method was used to obtain a series of novel non-metal doped TiO2 photocatalysts. Biuret was applied as C and N source, while raw titanium dioxide derived from sulfate technology process was used as TiO2 and S source. The influence of the modification with biuret and the effect of the atmosphere (air or argon) and temperature (500–800 °C) of calcination on the physicochemical properties and photocatalytic activity of the photocatalysts towards ketoprofen decomposition under simulated solar light was investigated. Moreover, selected photocatalysts were applied for ketoprofen photodecomposition under visible and UV irradiation. Crucial features affecting the photocatalytic activity were the anatase to rutile phase ratio, anatase crystallites size and non-metals content. The obtained photocatalysts revealed improved activity in the photocatalytic ketoprofen decomposition compared to the crude TiO2. The best photoactivity under all irradiation types exhibited the photocatalyst calcined in the air atmosphere at 600 °C, composed of 96.4% of anatase with 23 nm crystallites, and containing 0.11 wt% of C, 0.05 wt% of N and 0.77 wt% of S.

Dual promotional effect of CuxO clusters grown with atomic layer deposition on TiO2 for photocatalytic hydrogen production

The promotional effects on photocatalytic hydrogen production of CuxO clusters deposited using atomic layer deposition (ALD) on P25 TiO2 are presented. The structural and surface chemistry study of CuxO/TiO2 samples, along with first principles Density Functional Theory simulations, reveal the strong interaction of ALD deposited CuxO with TiO2, leading to the stabilization of CuxO clusters on the surface; it also demonstrated substantial reduction of Ti4+ to Ti3+ on the surface of CuxO/TiO2 samples after CuxO ALD. The CuxO/TiO2 photocatalysts showed remarkable improvement in hydrogen productivity, with 11 times greater hydrogen production for the optimum sample compared to unmodified P25. With the combination of the hydrogen production data and characterization of CuxO/TiO2 photocatalysts, we inferred that ALD deposited CuxO clusters have a dual promotional effect: increased charge carrier separation and improved light absorption, consistent with known copper promoted TiO2 photocatalysts and generation of a substantial amount of surface Ti3+ which results in self-doping of TiO2 and improves its photo-activity for hydrogen production. The obtained data were also employed to modify the previously proposed expanding photocatalytic area and overlap model to describe the effect of cocatalyst size and weight loading on photocatalyst activity. Comparing the trend of surface Ti3+ content increase and the photocatalytically promoted area, calculated with our model, suggests that the depletion zone formed around the heterojunction of CuxO-TiO2 is the main active area for hydrogen production, and the hydrogen productivity of the photocatalyst depends on the surface coverage by this active area. However, the overlap of these areas initiates the deactivation of the photocatalyst.

Plasma-catalytic NOx production in a three-level coupled rotating electrodes air plasma combined with nano-sized TiO2

A novel three-level coupled rotating electrodes air plasma with nano-sized TiO2 photocatalysts is developed for plasma-catalytic NOx production. The effects of plasma catalysis on NOx production with different air flow rates, different N2 fractions and different humidity levels are evaluated. Final results show that the exceptionally synergistic effect between TiO2 and three-level coupled rotating electrodes air plasma significantly increases the NOx concentration by 68.32% (from 4952 to 8335 ppm) and reduces the energy cost by 40.55% (from 2.91 to 1.73 MJ mol-1) at an air flow rate of 12 l min-1 and relative humidity level of 12%, which beats the ideal thermodynamic energy limit ~2.5MJ/mol for the thermal gas-phase process. A possible mechanism for enhanced NOx production with TiO2 is discussed: Highly energetic electrons in plasma contribute to the formations of the electron–hole pairs and oxygen vacancy (Vo) on the TiO2 catalyst surface, it may facilitate the dissociative adsorption of O2 molecules to form superoxide radical groups (like O2.-), and H2O molecules to form surface hydroxyl groups (like OH.), and thus, improving energy efficiency.

Thermo-Optical Characterization of Cu- and Zr-Modified TiO2 Photocatalysts by Beam Deflection Spectrometry

Cu/Zr-modified TiO2 photocatalysts were prepared in the form of nanopowders and characterized by photothermal spectrometry, UV–Vis spectrophotometry and x-ray diffraction (XRD) to investigate the effect of Cu/Zr content on their thermo-optical and transport properties. Adding Cu (0.05%) caused a change in the light absorption range limit, which reduced from 3.25 eV for pure TiO2 to 2.85 eV for Cu-modified TiO2. The decrease in energy band gap was accompanied by a 19.5% decrease in the charge carrier lifetime, which is not favorable for photocatalysis. The decrease in charge carrier lifetime can be minimized by additional modification of TiO2 with Zr (1%), which showed insignificant effects on the energy band gap of the investigated materials. Furthermore, modification of TiO2 with Zr affected the material’s structure and increased its specific surface area, which improved the adsorption of degraded compounds as well as the absorption of light. Altogether, these effects resulted in higher photocatalytic degradation rate constants of the investigated TiO2-based photocatalyst. It was also found that modification of TiO2 with Cu and/or Zr increases both the material’s thermal diffusivity and conductivity due to changes in the band gap and structure of material. Beam deflection spectrometry (BDS) has demonstrated high potential in materials’ characterization which stems from its high sensitivity and precision.

Improvement of the Efficiency of TiO2 Photocatalysts with Natural Dye Sensitizers Anthocyanin for the Degradation of Methylene Blue: Review

One of the potential methods utilized for dye degradation is photocatalitic, due to its low cost, highly effective, and environmentally friendly. Effectivenes of TiO2 photocatalysts can be enhanced by adding a dye sensitizer. Dye-sensitizer material absorbs visible light to facilitate electron excitation process. Addition of dye-sensitizer on TiO2 photocatalyst promotes it to be more responsive to visible light. Natural anthocyanin dyes are often used as sensitizers of TiO2 semiconductors. Anthocyanins are, usually in the purple to the red color range, a group of natural dyes found in the flowers, leaves, and fruit of plants. The essential principles of dye sensitization to TiO2 have been explored in this review. It is feasible to reduce the band gap energy in the TiO2 photocatalyst by modifying it using a natural dye sensitized modification. Dye sensitizers on TiO2 nanotubes plate have the potential to be employed in a dye degradation photocatalytic system