A flow reactor has been found to
be advantageous for a photocatalytic
reaction due to enhanced transport phenomena and photon transfer.
A fluoropolymer is a promising material for fabricating a photocatalytic
flow reactor because it is transparent, commercially available, and
inexpensive. However, its high hydrophobicity and chemically inert
nature makes it difficult to coat photocatalysts. In this work, we
successfully developed a protocol to immobilize photocatalysts (TiO2–P25) onto the wall of a perfluoroalkoxy alkane tubing.
The immobilization was enabled by the initial depositions of polydopamine
and polyethyleneimine (PEI) layers. Then, through an ionic interaction,
P25 was immobilized onto the PEI layer. A layer-by-layer PEI–P25
assembly yielded a high photocatalyst loading, which in turn enhanced
the photocatalytic activity significantly. A continuous-flow operation
of the photocatalytic methylene blue decolorization was demonstrated
with negligible leaching of the photocatalysts and minimal loss in
activity over time. A transport phenomenon inside the tubular reactor
was modeled to elucidate the effect of the process parameters on kinetic
and adsorption parameters. This simply fabricated flow reactor shows
a great potential for photocatalytic applications.
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