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Photocatalytic properties comparison of sol-gel immobilized TiO2, TiO2/multiwall carbon nanotubes and TiO2/graphene oxide on glass fiber mesh

There is a noticeable increased interest in solar photocatalysis research as an advanced oxidation process in the purification of water from micropollutants. In this work, immobilization of TiO2, TiO2/multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and TiO2/graphene oxide (GO) on glass fiber mesh was conducted by a sol-gel method to obtain photocatalysts. Idea of using MWCNT and GO assumes possible TiO2 response threshold shift towards the visible part of the spectrum with the aim of improving the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2 under the solar light. TiO2/MWCNT and TiO2/GO composites with various concentrations of MWCNT and GO were prepared (5, 10 and 25 wt. % relative to the mass of TiO2). Photocatalytic activity of prepared photocatalysts was investigated through the degradation of salicylic acid within the prepared modal solution under simulated solar radiation in pilot reactor, followed by the UV-ViS spectrometry. Regarding the immobilized TiO2 the best results were achieved by using 5 wt. % concentrations of MWCNT, while samples with GO showed lower photocatalytic activity. The prepared catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and powder diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) UV-VIS. Following the SEM/EDX analysis, a successful immobilization of TiO2 and MWCNT or GO on meshes was confirmed. Band gap values obtained from the DRS spectra are in correlation with the photocatytic activity results of prepared samples suggesting that a considerable synergetic photocatalytic effect was achieved on photocatalyst with 5 wt. % of MWCNT.

Photocatalysis ; Sol-gel, TiO2 ; Multiwall carbon nanotubes ; Graphene oxide

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