Synergistic Effect of the KBrO3 Electron Acceptor on the Photocatalytic Performance of the Nb-TiO2 Nanocomposite for Polluted Phenol Red Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

In this work, the effect of KBrO3 on the photodegradation mechanism of Nb-TiO2 nanocomposites was analyzed. The photocatalytic activities of Nb-TiO2 were evaluated by using a high concentration of phenol red (PR). Nb-TiO2 nanocomposites were fabricated by a simple sol–gel route with new experimental conditions. HRTEM and EDX were used to study the structural properties of the Nb-TiO2 nanocomposites. KBrO3 decreased the degradation time of 20 mg·L−1 of phenol red to 110 min, shorter than that in our previous work without KBrO3. In addition, the results showed that the addition of KBrO3 led to a significant degradation process, which reached an efficiency of 95%. The fast decomposition of the PR pollutants was due to the charge transfer between the KBrO3 and Nb-TiO2 nanocomposites in the wastewater treatment.