Photocatalytic degradation on Disperse Blue with modified nano-TiO2 film electrode

Abstract

Sol-gel and dip-coating methods were used to prepare the modified nano-TiO 2 film electrode; its photocatalytic and electrochemical properties were investigated under both UV light and sunlight for the degradation of Disperse Blue. The results showed that the effect of co-doping metal and non-metal ions was better than that of single metal ion doping or no doping. Y-F co-doping could better take advantage of sunlight so as to decrease the energy gap of semiconductor and to improve the utilization of visible light, while Ce-F co-doping served to separate photo-generated h + /e − pairs, which resulted in better degradation of dye under UV light. The grain size of prepared electrode was from 15 to 25 nm, and nano particles were arranged smoothly as well as closely with each other, confirming to be an effective binder. The final decolorization extents reached 44.43% under sunlight and 96.86% under UV light within 30 min, respectively.

Recent Developments in Environmental Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants: The Case of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles—A Review

“…The photogenerated holes should be highly oxidizing to produce hydroxyl radicals ( • OH) and the photogenerated electrons should be reducing enough to produce superoxides from the oxygen [92]. Also, the element should have more than one stable valence in the semiconductor so that it is not decomposed (photocorrosion) by the formation of holes (e.g., Zn 2+ in ZnO and Cd 2+ in CdS are photocorroded by the formation of holes) [8,18,[93][94][95]. Furthermore, the semiconductor must have a suitable band gap, which is highly stable to chemical corrosion, nontoxic, and generally of low cost [8,18,92,93,96,97].…”

“…The use of nanocatalysts also results in less waste generation, especially in posttreatment, since less quantity of nanomaterial will be required compared to its bulk form. Furthermore, with the use of nanomaterials, novel reactions can be accomplished at nanoscale due to an increase in the number of surface atoms which is not possible with its analogous bulk material, for example, the degradation of pesticides by nanoparticles which cannot be done by the metals in their bulk form [2,7,93,94,113].…”

Towards visible light driven photoelectrocatalysis for water treatment: Application of a FTO/BiVO4/Ag2S heterojunction anode for the removal of emerging pharmaceutical pollutants

“…Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and zinc oxide (ZnO) remained the most applied semiconducting photocatalyst as anodic material for photoelectrocatalytic degradation of organics [9][10][11] . Owing to the wide band gaps of TiO 2 (3.2 eV) and ZnO (3.5 eV), they perform best with the application of UV light but the UV region accounts for less than 5% of the solar spectrum 12 . Therefore, other sources of UV light which are expensive are often needed when using TiO 2 and ZnO.…”

Sonication-polished anodic TiO2 nanotube array-based photoanode for efficient solar energy conversion

“…Recently, one type of technologies based on photoelectrochemical (PEC) reactions is expected as a potential route to solve the problems [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. These technologies share some features in common, including utilization of nanostructured or molecular semiconductors to harvest sunlight, and conversion of solar energy into fuels or electricity by electrochemical reactions, etc.…”

“…For instance, hydrogen (H 2 ), regarded as one of the most promising candidates to fossil fuels, could be produced by photocatalytic water (H 2 O) splitting [3,[5][6][7][15][16][17]. Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants is a feasible and cost-effective way to address the environmental problem [1,2,9,10]. Besides, a new-concept photovoltaic (PV) device called dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which is in terms of a PEC cell rather than a conventional p-n junction, could generate electricity directly [4, 8, 11-14, 18, 19].…”