Tunable Composition Aqueous-Synthesized Mixed-Phase TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanocrystals for Photo-Assisted Water Decontamination: Comparison of Anatase, Brookite and Rutile Photocatalysts

oleh: Konstantina Chalastara, Fuqiang Guo, Samir Elouatik, George P. Demopoulos

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2020-04-01

Deskripsi

Mixed-phase nanoTiO<sub>2</sub> materials attract a lot of attention as advanced photocatalysts for water decontamination due to their intrinsic structure that allows better photo-excited e<sup>−</sup><sub>cb</sub>-h<sup>+</sup><sub>vb</sub> charge separation, hence improved photocatalytic efficiency. Currently, the best-known mixed-phase TiO<sub>2</sub> photocatalyst is P25 with approximate composition 80% Anatase/20% Rutile (<b>A<sub>/r</sub></b>). Apart from Anatase (A) and Rutile (R) phases, there is Brookite (B) which has been evaluated less as photocatalyst in mixed-phase nanoTiO<sub>2</sub> systems. In this work we present a sustainable solution process to synthesize tunable composition mixed-phase nanotitania photocatalysts in a continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR) by modulating conditions like pH, C<sub>TiCl4</sub> and time. In particular three mixed-phase TiO<sub>2</sub> nanomaterials were produced, namely one predominantly anatase with brookite as minor component (<b>A<sub>/b</sub></b>), one predominantly brookite with minor component rutile (<b>B<sub>/r</sub></b>), and one predominantly rutile with minor component brookite (<b>R<sub>/b</sub></b>) and evaluated as photocatalysts in the degradation of methyl orange. The three semiconducting nanomaterials were characterized by XRD and Raman spectroscopy to quantify the phase ratios and subjected to nano-morphological characterization by FE-SEM and TEM/HR-TEM. The new mixed-phase nanoTiO<sub>2</sub> materials are shown to be endowed with large specific surface area, ranging from 90–125 m<sup>2</sup> g<sup>−1</sup>, double of that of P25, to be mesoporous and be surface-rich in Ti–OH molecular groups varying from 12%–20% versus 4% for P25. These properties though impact the adsorptive capacity with <b>R<sub>/b</sub></b> and <b>B<sub>/r</sub></b> removing > 50% of MO but not photocatalytic activity. The latter depends on nanograined mixed-phase structure and not mere assembly of different phase nanoparticles. First-order rate constants reveal essentially equivalent photocatalytic activity for anatase nanocrystals with either rutile (P25) or brookite (this work) domains.