Photodegradation of methyl orange by BiOI-sensitized TiO_2

BiOI-sensitized titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalysts were prepared by a deposition method at room temperature and characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area measurements. The photocatalytic activities of the catalysts were evaluated for the degradation of methyl orange (MO) solution under UV and visible light irradiation. The effects of catalyst amount, initial pH value, initial concentration of MO, as well as KI amount were investigated. The repeatability of photocatalytic activity of the 1.7% BiOI/TiO2 catalyst was also tested. It is shown that BiOI sensitization enhances the photocatalytic activities of TiO2. With BiOI content increasing, the photocatalytic activities of BiOI/TiO2 under UV and visible light irradiation first increase, reaching a maximum around BiOI content of 1.7%, and then decrease with further increasing BiOI content. The 1.7% BiOI/TiO2 catalyst obviously exhibits much higher visible light photocatalytic activity than P25, and its UV light photocatalytic activity is slightly higher than that of P25. Under the conditions of a catalytic dose of 1.5 g.L-1, initial pH of 3.0, initial MO concentration of 20 mg.L-1, UV power of 300 W, and air flow rate of 0.8 L.min-1, complete degradatio is achieved within 60 min. The repeatability of photocatalytic activity of the 1.7% BiOI/TiO2 catalyst is highly reliable.

Mechanisms of Enhancement of Photocatalytic Properties and Activity of Nd^(3+)-Doped TiO_2 for Methyl Orange Degradation

Nd^(3+)-doped TiO_2 powders were prepared by the sol-gel method. Their crystal pattern and parameter, the specific surface area, the surface chemical state of Ti and the ratio of O/Ti were characterized. The results show that Nd impurity hinders the crystal transformation, and decreases the relative intensity of (101) peak. The crystallite sizes of Nd^(3+)-doped TiO_2 powders decrease while their specific surface area increase owing to the Nd^(3+) doping. The XPS measurement shows that the content of Ti(Ⅲ) and ratio of O/Ti on their surfaces increase significantly with the increase of Nd^(3+) dosage. The adsorption and photodegradation experiments show that the optimum molar content of Nd^(3+) is 1.2%.

Photocatalytic Dye Methyl Orange Decomposition on Ternary Sulfide (CdIn2S4) under Visible-light

A novel and efficient photocatalyst, CdIn2S4, was simply prepared by a programmed temperature hydrothermal method. The product had a nanometer size （10-15 nm） and strong absorption in the range of 200 to 580 nm, and it exhibited visible-light photocatalytic activity to decompose dye methyl orange in aqueous system.

Photoelectrocatalytic activity of immobilized Yb doped WO3 photocatalyst for degradation of methyl orange dye

Pure WOand Yb:WOthin films have been synthesized by spray pyrolysis technique. Effect of Yb doping concentration on photoelectrochemical, structural, morphological and optical properties of thin films are studied. X-ray diffraction analysis shows that all thin films are polycrystalline nature and exhibit monoclinic crystal structure. The 3 at% Yb:WOfilm shows superior photoelectrochemical（PEC） performance than that of pure WOfilm and it shows maximum photocurrent density（Iph= 1090 μA/cm） having onset potentials around +0.3 V/SCE in 0.01 M HClO. The photoelectrocatalytic process is more effective than that of the photocatalytic process for degradation of methyl orange（MO） dye. Yb doping in WOphotocatalyst is greatly effective to degrade MO dye. The enhancement in photoelectrocatalytic activity is mainly due to the suppressing the recombination rate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The mineralization of MO dye in aqueous solution is studied by measuring chemical oxygen demand（COD） values.

Sonocatalytic degradation of methyl orange in the presence of (nanometer and ordinary) anatase TiO_2 powders

The nanometer and ordinary anatase titanium dioxide(TiO_2) powders were adopted as the sonocatalysts for the degradation of methyl orange used as a model compound for the first time. It was found that the sonocatalytic degradation effect of methyl orange in the presence of TiO_2 powder were much better than that without TiO_2, but the sonocatalytic activity of the nanometer anatase TiO_2 particle was obviously higher than that of ordinary anatase TiO_2 particle. Although there are many factors influencing sonocatalytic degradation of methyl orange, the experimental results showed that the best degradation ratio of methyl orange could be obtained when the experimental conditions were: initial concentration 15 mg/L, nanometer anatase TiO_2 adding amount 750 mg/L, ultrasonic frequency 40 kHz, output power 50 W, pH = 3.0 and temperature 40℃ within 150 min. In addition, the catalytic activity of reused nanometer anatase TiO_2 catalyst was also studied and found to decline gradually comparing with initial nanometer anatase TiO_2 catalyst. All experiments indicated that the method of the sonocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in the presence of TiO_2 powder was an advisable choice for non- or low-transparent organic wastewaters.

Hydrothermal Synthesis of H_3PW_(12)O_(40)/TiO_2 Nanometer Photocatalyst and Its Catalytic Performance for Methyl Orange

H3PW12O40/TiO2 nanometer photocatalyst was prepared by one step hydrothermal synthesis from H3PW12O40·nH20 and Ti（OBu）4, simultaneously realizing the load and modification of H3PW12O40. The catalyst was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FTIR）, powder X-ray diffraction（XRD）, nitrogen adsorp- tion-desorption analysis and scanning electron microscopy（SEM）. The results show that the catalyst is Keggin struc- ture and crystallized in anatase structure, the diameter and specific area of the prepared catalyst are 3.8 nm and 177.9 m^2/g, respectively, and its dispersity is better. The photocatalytic properties were compared for TiO2H3PW12O40/TiO2 prepared by impregnation and H3PW12O40/TiO2 prepared by hydrothermal method with methyl orange as a probe. The effects of H3PW12O40 loadings, crystallization method, initial pH and concentration of dye solution on the degradation of methyl orange were investigated.

Selective-adsorption Removal of Methyl Orange(MO) by CTAB-assisted AgBr Powder

The AgBr powder was prepared by a hydrothermal method via a reaction of AgNO3 with hexadecyltrimethy ammonium bromide（CTAB）,namely,CTAB-assisted synthesis method.The selective-adsorption ability of the AgBr samples for the MO was evaluated in a MO and Rhodamine B mixed solution via ultraviolet-visible spectra.Compared with the AgBr sample prepared from NaBr solution,it was found that the AgBr powder synthesized by CTAB-assisted method exhibited high selective-adsorption performance for the MO in the MO-RhB mixed system.After aged for 60 min,the MO could be efficiently removed by CTAB-assisted AgBr powder.Considering the potential wide applications of the selective adsorption,the CTAB-assisted AgBr provides a new and efficient method for the removal of various dyes and is possible to be widely used in industries.

Degradation of Methyl Orange in Water by Contact Glow Discharge Electrolysis

The degradation of methyl orange in a neutral phosphate buffer solution was investigated by means of contact glow discharge electrolysis （CGDE）. The methyl oranges were degraded and eventually decomposed into inorganic carbon when CGDE was conducted under the applied DC voltage of 480 V and current of ca. 80 mA. As the intermediate products, some phenolic compounds were detected as well as carboxylic acids. Experimental results showed that the oxidation process followed the first-order reaction law. Based on the analysis of the ultraviolet （UV） spectra of the solution and the intermediate products from High Pressure Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrum （HPLC-MS）, the reaction pathway was proposed. The attack of hydroxyl radicals was considered to be a key step to start the whole oxidation process.

Hydrothermal Synthesis of CdIn_2S_4 and Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange under Visible-light Irradiation

CdIn2S4 microspheres were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method with the temperature ranging from 120 to 200 ℃. X-ray diffraction, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, nitrogen sorption analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the products. It was found that the crystallographic structure and optical property of the products synthesized at different temperature were almost the same. The SBEX of CdIn2S4 products decreased when the synthesized temperature increased, and the largest SBET was 33.16 m2 g-1 （120 ℃ sample）. The degradation of methyl orange （MO） under the visible-light irradiation had been used as a probe reaction to investigate the photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared CdIn2S4, which showed that the CdIn2S4 sample synthesized at 120 ℃ presented the best photocatalytic activity for MO degradation.

Removal of Methyl Orange from Aqueous Solution by Mineral-based Porous Granulated Material

Sodium bentonite, graphite, light calcium carbonate and diatomite were used as parent minerals for the mineral-based porous granulated material （MPGM） which was tested for the removal of methyl orange （MO）, a cationic dye, fIom aqueous solution. The adsorption capacity was evaluated under the conditions of varied initial pH, adsorbent dosage, dye concentration, temperature, reaction time, and static regeneration. Experimental results showed that the maximum capacity of MPGM adsorbing MO was more than 80 mg·g-1 The adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of MPGM followed typical pseudo-first-order and Langmuir adsorption models respectively. The thermodynamic parameters of △G°, △H° and △S° showed that the adsorption was an endothermic and spontaneous process without remarkable change. The spent MPGM was regenerated 5 times and probable pathway for the efficient and re-utilizing adsorbent has been proposed. The results indicate that MPGM has a structure of silicon-aluminium-calcium-carbon, and could be employed as porous, low density, and large specific surface area alternatives for the removal of cations dyes from industrial wastewater.

Enhanced Adsorption of Methyl Orange onto Self-assembled Hydrogel with Anatase Titania Nanotube and Graphene

A novel composites hydrogel adsorbent was facilely synthesized for efficient removal of acid dyes from aqueous solution.The composite hydrogel consisting of TiO_2 nanotubes(TN) and graphene oxide(GO)(H-TN-GO) was characterized by BrunauerEmmett-Teller(BET),transmission electron microscope(TEM),scanning electron microscope(SEM),Raman spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscope(XPS).Experimental results elucidated that columnar hydrogel could be tunably prepared with self-assembly by adjusting the proportion of GO/TN,mixing time and pH.The properties of adsorption and regeneration on methyl orange(MO)onto H-TN-GO were investigated respectively.The maximal adsorption capacity of H-TN-GO for MO reached 933.8 and 513.7mg/g under the pH of 4.0 and 6.8,respectively.The adsorption capacity of MO reached the maximum when pH was equivalent to4.0,which attributed to increasing electrostatic attraction.Besides,the adsorption behavior was fitted reasonably better with Freundlich isotherm model than Langmuir model;the adsorption speed was rapid and the removal ratio almost reached 99.5% when the concentration of MO was less than 100 mg/L.After the used adsorbent was irradiated with the ultraviolet ray of 500 W for 3 h,its adsorption capacity could be recovered without significant loss.

Kinetics Study on Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange Catalyzed by Sea Urchin-Like Cu2O

Sea urchin-like cuprous oxide with hollow glass microsphere as core was prepared using sodium sulfite as the reducing agent and sodium acetate-acetic acid as buffer solution in copper sulfate solution. Methyl orange was selected as degradation target for photocatalytic experiments. The photocatalytic activities were investigated by visible spectro- photometer. Photocatalytic kinetics parameters were studied by the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model and Arrhenius formula. It was observed that the sea urchin-like morphology dramatically improved the photocatalytic activity of cuprous oxide. The photo-degradation belongs to the first-order reaction and the maximum degradation rate could reach 94.37%. The activation energy and pre-exponential factor are 41.18 KJ·mol-1 and 1.07 × 106, respectively. After seven times recycling, the sample still showed high photo-catalytic efficiency and stability.

Comparative Study on the Acid-Base Indicator Properties of Natural Dye, Turmeric Rhizome (Curcuma longa) and Synthetic Dyes

Acid-Base Indicator, Turmeric Rhizome (Curcuma longa) was extracted from the root of a turmeric plant. The turmeric was peeled, washed and dried in an oven at 60°C. It was ground into powder and soaked in hot and cold ethanol for the extraction. The extract was filtered and part of it was concentrated to yield a reasonable quantity of turmeric indicator. On standardization of acid with a base, 0.05 M base respectively of Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and Disodium borate (B4Na2O7) were used. Hot and cold extracts of turmeric were used as indicators and were compared with methyl orange and phenolphthalein. On the preliminary test carried out, hot and cold turmeric indicator showed yellow colour in acid medium and orange colour in the base. Methyl orange showed red colour in acid but yellow in the base, phenolphthalein was colourless in acid but pink in the base. During titration there were colour changes at the end points in the entire test carried out. The average volumes at ends points were calculated, the molar concentrations and mass concentrations of the acids used were also determined. The results showed that there was no difference between the natural indicators used and the existing synthetic indicators which are toxic to our environment.

Degradation of dyestuff wastewater using visible light in the presence of a novel nano TiO_2 catalyst doped with upconversion luminescence agent

A new upconversion luminescence agent, 40CdF2·60BaF2·0.8ErO3, was synthesized and its fluorescent spectra were determined. This upconversion luminescence agent can emit five upconversion fluorescent peaks shown in the fluorescent spectra whose wavelengths are all below 387 nm under the excitation of 488 nm visible light. This upconversion luminescence agent was mixed into nano rutile TiO2 powder by ultrasonic and boiling dispersion and the novel doped nano TiO2 photocatalyst utilizing visible light was firstly prepared. The doped TiO2 powder was charactered by XRD and TEM and its photocatalytic activity was tested through the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange as a model compound under the visible light irradiation emitted by six three basic color lamps. In order to compare the photocatalytic activities, the same experiment was carried out for undoped TiO2 powder. The degradation ratio of methyl orange in the presence of doped nano TiO2 powder reached 32.5% under visible light irradiation at 20 h which was obviously higher than the corresponding 1.64% in the presence of undoped nano TiO2 powder, which indicate the upconversion luminescence agent prepared as dopant can effectively turn visible lights to ultraviolet lights that are absorbed by nano TiO2 particles to produce the electron-cavity pairs. All the results show that the nano rutile TiO2 powder doped with upconversion luminescence agent is a promising photocatalyst using sunlight for treating the industry dye wastewater in great force.

Synthesis and photocatalytic properties of lanthanum doped anatase TiO_2 coated Fe_3O_4 composites

A composite photocatalyst （La/TiO2/Fe3O4） with a lanthanum doped TiO2 （La/TiO2） shell and a magnetite core was prepared by coating photoactive La/TiO2 onto a magnetic Fe3O4 core. The morphological, structural, and optical properties of as-prepared samples were charac-terized by transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, X-ray diffraction （XRD） and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. The effect of lanthanum content on the photocatalytic properties was studied, and the result revealed that 0.15 mol% La/TiO2/Fe3O4 exhibited the highest photoactiv-ity. The photocatalytic properties of the prepared photocatalyst under UV and visible light were investigated in aqueous solution using methyl orange （MO） as a target pollutant. The results showed that the prepared photocatalyst was activated by visible light and used as an ef-fective catalyst in photooxidation reactions. In addition, the possibility of cyclic usage of the prepared photocatalyst was also confirmed. Moreover, La/TiO2 was tightly bound to Fe3O4 and could be easily recovered from the medium by a simple magnetic process.

Effect of Ho-doping on photocatalytic activity of nanosized TiO_2 catalyst

Ho-doped TiO2 nanoparticles with higher photocatalytic activity were prepared by an acid-catalyzed sol-gel method. The photocatalytic decomposition of methyl orange in aqueous solution was used as a probe reaction to evaluate their photocatalytic activities. The effects of Ho doping on the crystallite sizes, crystal pattern, surface composition, and optical property of the catalysts were investigated by means of techniques such as X-Ray Diffraction （XRD）, Transmission Electron Microscopy （TEM）, Diffuse Reflectance UV-Vis Spectroscopy （UV-Vis DRS）, Fourier Transform Infrared （FT-IR）, and Photo-Luminiscence （PL） spectra. Moreover, the modification mechanism of Ho doping was also discussed. The results showed that Ho doping could inhibit phase transformation from anatase to rntile, suppress the growth of TiO2 grains, cause blue shift of the absorption spectrum edge, accelerate surface hydroxylation, and enhance the separation efficiency of photoinduced electron-hole pairs, which resulted in a significant improvement in the photoreactivity of Ho-doped TiO2. Among them, the Ho-doped TiO2 calcined at 500℃ achieved the highest photocatalytic activity.

Synthesis of BiVO_4 nanosheets-graphene composites toward improved visible light photoactivity

Two-dimensional （2-D） BiVO4 nanosheets-graphene （GR） composites with different weight addition ratios of GR have been prepared via a facile wet chemistry process. X-ray diffraction （XRD）, Raman spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectra （XPS）, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra （DRS）, field-emission scanning electron microscopy （FE-SEM）, transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, transient photocurrent response and photoluminescence （PL） spectra were employed to determine the properties of the samples. It is found that BiVO4 nanosheets could pave well on the surface of graphene sheets. BiVO4 nanosheets-GR composites with a proper addition amount of GR exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than bare BiVO4 nanosheets toward liquid-phase degradation of rhodamine B （RhB） and methyl orange （MO） under visible light irradiation. The enhancement of photocatalytic activities of BiVO4 nanosheets-GR composites can be attributed to the effective separation of photoexcited electron-hole pairs. This work not only provides a simple strategy for fabricating specific 2-D semiconductor-2-D GR composites, but also opens a new window of such 2-D semiconductor-2-D GR composites as visible light photocatalysts toward an improved visible light photoactivity in purifying polluted water resources.

Preparation of nitrogen-doped titania and its photocatalytic activity

Yellowish nitrogen-doped titania was produced through sol-gel method in mild condition, with the elemental nitrogen derived from aqua ammonia. The titania catalysts were characterized using XRD, BET, TEM, XPS, and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer, and their photocatalytic activities were evaluated under UV and visible light, respec tively. The XRD results showed that all titania catalysts were anatase. More significantly, the crystallite size of nitrogen-doped titania increased with an increase in N/Ti proportion, and the doping of nitrogen could extend the absorption shoulder into the visible-light region, thus it possessed a higher visible-light activity illustrated by decolorization of methyl orange （65.3%） under the irradiation of visible light, whereas pure titania showed little of such kind of visible light activity. The UV-light activity of nitrogen-doped titania catalysts was worse than that of pure titania and Degussa P25. In the range of N/Ti proportion of 4-10 mol%, the activity of nitrogen-doped titania weakened appreciably in the visible-light region as the N/Ti proportion increased, whereas a reverse relationship existed under the irradiation of UV light.

Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of Nanoparticle-Aggregated Ag–AgX(X=Cl, Br)@TiO_2 Microspheres Under Visible Light

Ag–AgX(X = Cl, Br)@TiO_2 nanoparticle-aggregated spheres with different mass ratio of R = TiO2/Ag(X) from 35:1 to 5:1 were synthesized by a facile sol–gel technique with post-photoreduction. The photocatalytic activities of both Ag–Ag Cl@TiO_2 and Ag–Ag Br@TiO_2 under visible light are effectively improved by ~3 times relative to TiO_2 NPAS under the simulated sunlight for the decomposition of methyl orange(MO). Ag–AgBr@TiO_2 showed 30% improvement and less stable in photocatalytic activity than that of AgCl@TiO_2. The role of Ag and Ag X nanoparticles on the surface of Ag–Ag X(X = Cl,Br)@TiO_2 was discussed. Ag on these samples not onlycan efficiently harvest visible light especially for Ag Cl, but also efficiently separate excited electrons and holes via the fast electron transfer from Ag X(X = Cl, Br) to metal Ag nanoparticles and then to TiO_2-aggregated spheres on the surface of heterostructure. On the basis of their efficient and stable photocatalytic activities under visible-light irradiation, these photocatalysts could be widely used for degradation of organic pollutants in aqueous solution.