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Photoelectrochemical Degradation of Pharmaceutical Compounds at TiO2/SnS2 Electrode

Pharmaceuticals are known to have a significant impact on aquatic environment causing ecological risk and human health damage. Accordingly, it is important to develop an innovative and practical water treatment technique, which will be able to remove them. Photoelectrochemical oxidation is one of the promising techniques due to its simplicity and combination of photocatalytic and electrochemical process. Additionally, recombination of photogenerated electron/hole pairs that occurs decreases by applying external potential, leading to enhancement in pharmaceutical degradation efficiency. One of the most important photocatalytic candidates is TiO2. Since it is limited to UV-irradiation, significant efforts have been done to extend its absorption into the visible light region through TiO2 doping or TiO2 composite formation. Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate photoelectrochemical activities of TiO2/SnS2 nano-composite. The examination was performed using photoelectrochemical techniques in 0.1 mol dm-3 NaCl solution, for degradation of pharmaceuticals such as diclophenac, salicylic acid and memantine hydrochloride. For this purpose, TiO2/SnS2 nano-composite was immobilised on FTO electrodes. Good sensitivity of photocatalyst was shown by monitoring OCP in chopped light irradiation and by comparing EIS response in dark to the one under light irradiation. Electrochemical and photoelectrochemical degradation of pharmaceutical was monitored by linear polarisation. The experiments showed that it is possible to degrade pharmaceutical using electrochemical process and to improve degradation using solar irradiation for TiO2/SnS2 nano-composite electrode (Fig. 1). The obtained response is dependent on the on the type of pharmaceutical and its affinity towards the adsorption at TiO2-SnS2 surface.

photocatalysis ; water treatment ; nanocomposite ; solar irradiation

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