Abstract
Toluene is one type of common volatile organic compound (VOC) that is produced by daily products and is harmful to human health. Therefore, the degradation of toluene is critical to improving indoor air quality value. Photocatalytic degradation is considered an efficient and safe method to convert toluene into water and carbon dioxide without the formation of a secondary pollutant. Performance improvement of TiO2, a typically applied photocatalyst, has advantages in light absorption and electron transfer process. In this study, the TiO2 improvement was carried out by the doping of sulfur and nitrogen (S, N) elements along with various reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The composition of 0.1wt%rGO/S0.05N0.1TiO2 performed higher photocatalytic degradation of toluene due to the elevation of specific surface area, formation of oxygen-containing functional group, and chemical defect structure. However, a higher amount of rGO addition creates the shielding effect and inhibits the light penetration. Moreover, the relative humidity and applied temperature influence the photocatalytic activity through the competitive adsorption or increase the collisions frequency, respectively. During the photocatalytic degradation using 0.1wt%rGO/S0.05N0.1TiO2, toluene will be converted into benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, benzoic acid, water, and carbon dioxide.