Preparation of Highly Active TiO2 Nano-particle Photocatalysts by a Flame Aerosol Method for the Complete Oxidation of 2-Propanol

Abstract

A flame aerosol method has been employed to prepare spherical TiO 2 nano-particle photocatalysts with controlled anatase/rutile phase ratios without calcination at higher temperatures. This method was found to have important advantages since the main factors in achieving high photocatalytic activity such as the particle size, crystallinity and the anatase/rutile phase ratios could be easily controlled. In particular, the incorporation of small amounts of bimetals, such as Fe and Zn, were found to initiate the formation of well-crystalline, small and uniform spherical nano-size particles with a well-defined anatase/rutile phase ratio of around 60/40, similar to P-25 TiO 2 . This suppressed the recombination of the photoformed charge carriers leading to a significant increase in the photocatalytic reactivity of the TiO 2 nano-particles. The incorporation of very small amounts of mono-metals, such as Fe, Cr and Zn (around 1 at.%), within the TiO 2 nano-particles led to a slight increase in the photocatalytic activity of the TiO 2 nano-particle photocatalysts for the complete oxidation of 2-propanol dissolved in water into CO 2 and H 2 O as compared with the unincorporated pure TiO 2 . The incorporation of bimetals of Fe and Zn within TiO 2 (Fe/Zn-TiO 2 ) nanoparticles, on the other hand, led to a remarkable enhancement in the photocatalytic activity as compared with the unincorporated and mono-metal incorporated TiO 2 .

Flame Aerosol Synthesis of Metal Oxide Catalysts with Unprecedented Structural and Catalytic Properties

“…Additionally the aforementioned review contains a brief overview of mixed metal oxides such as Si‐doped88–89 TiO 2 and Fe, Zn, Cr, and bimetal (Fe+Zn) doped90 TiO 2 . The latter material has been studied extensively by Park et al 94–95…”

Workplace Exposure to Titanium Dioxide Nanopowder Released from a Bag Filter System

“…Most particles were spherical TiO 2 [13]. The diameters of the primary particles ranged from 20 to 150 nm.…”

Preparation and properties of visible light responsive ZrTiO4/Bi2O3 photocatalysts for 4-chlorophenol decomposition

“…In recent years, nano-scale semiconductor materials have been the focus of much research, especially in the development of environmental remediation processes using nano-size TiO 2 photocatalysts [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. TiO 2 is generally considered the most promising and is widely used in heterogeneous photocatalysis [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…TiO 2 is generally considered the most promising and is widely used in heterogeneous photocatalysis [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. However, nano-size TiO 2 has a relatively large band gap of 3.2 eV, so that it is able to work more efficiently under the high energy of UV light irradiation and not visible light [2].…”