Synthesis and photocatalytic activity of TiO2 on phenol degradation

DOI: 10.48129/kjs.13509

Abstract

Photocatalysis has the ability to degrade phenols into other compounds which are relatively non-toxic to the environment. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is one of the most widely developed photocatalysis materials, and is used because of its high catalytic activity, stability and very affordable. The most commonly used precursors of TiO₂ are titanium butoxide (TBOT) and titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP). These variations in precursor can lead to phase difference in the formation of TiO₂ crystals, which further improves its nature in the activity of photocatalysis. In this study, the sol-gel method was used to synthesize titanium dioxide nanoparticles from variations of TBOT and TTIP. Futhermore, the structure, crystallite size and bandgap of TiO₂ were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-vis reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). Subsequently, TiO₂ photocatalytic activity was evaluated in phenol photodegradation as a contaminant model with UV irradiation. The results showed the structure synthesized from TBOT had a higher amount of anatase, higher crystallinity, smaller crystallite size, larger bandgap, and better photocatalytic activity than those from TTIP. Futhermore, it was shown that TiO₂ from TBOT had an efficiency of 147% greater than TiO₂ P25 Degussa, while TiO₂ from TTIP had 66% efficiency compared to TiO₂ P25.