Editors: | Kongoli F, Havlik T, Pagnanelli F |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2015 |
Pages: | 410 pages |
ISBN: | 978-1-987820-34-8 |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
Photocatalysis play an important role in dealing with today's challenging demand for wastewater treatment technologies. Among the photocatalysts, TiO2 is believed to be the most promising presently known material due to its superior photocatalytic activity, non-toxicity, long-term stability and low price. However, the lifetime of reactive oxygen species is relatively short under UV irradiation, which often led to a partial mineralization of organic pollutants. Mesoporous TiO2 has been considered to be a promising photocatalyst owing to its advantages such as high specific surface area and multidimensional framework. The modification of TiO2 with precious metals can alter the charge-transfer properties between TiO2 and the surrounding environment, thus improving the performance of TiO2 nanomaterials-based devices.
In this study, mesoporous TiO2 prepared by a templating sol-gel method was modified with precious metals such as Ag, Au and Pd. Photocatalytic activity of doped and undoped mesoporous TiO2 were evaluated under simulated solar light irradiation on real wastewater effluents sampled in the output of wastewater treatment plant located in the North of France. This study clearly demonstrated that the doped TiO2 photocatalysts present better activity than undoped ones.