Studies on mass production and highly solar light photocatalytic properties of gray hydrogenated-TiO2 sphere photocatalysts

Publication date: Available online 25 June 2018Source: Journal of Hazardous MaterialsAuthor(s): Ha-Rim An, Yong Cheol Hong, Hyeran Kim, Jin Young Huh, Edmond Changkyun Park, So Young Park, Yesul Jeong, Ji-In Park, Jong-Pil Kim, Young-Chul Lee, Woong-Ki Hong, You-Kwan Oh, Youn Jung Kim, Minho Yang, Hyun Uk LeeAbstractIn this paper, it is first reported that gray hydrogenated TiO2 sphere photocatalysts (H-TiO2) with high reactivity to solar light are mass produced within a few minutes using an underwater discharge plasma modified sol-gel method at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. This plasma modified system is an easy one-step in-situ synthetic process and the crystallinity, hydrogenation, and spherical structure of H-TiO2 are achieved by the synergy effect between the continuous reaction of highly energetic atomic and molecular species generated from the underwater plasma and surface tension of water. The resultant H-TiO2 demonstrated high anatase/rutile bicrystallinity and extended optical absorption spectrum from the ultraviolet (UV) to visible range. Furthermore, various defects including oxygen vacancies and hydroxyl species on the TiO2 surface permitted the enhancement of the photocatalytic performance. It was demonstrated that H-TiO2 photocatalysts showed significant degradation efficiencies for reactive black 5 (RB 5), rhodamine B (Rho B), and phenol (Ph) under solar light irradiation, up to approximately 5 times higher than that of commercial anatase TiO2 (C-...
Source: Journal of Hazardous Materials - Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research