Characterization of TiO2-activated carbon onto adsorption and photocatalytic properties and its application

Abstract

This study investigates the characterization of TiO2 in conjunction with activated carbon (AC) on its adsorption and photocatalytic properties. TiO2 in the absence and presence of AC were prepared by the sol-gel method. TiCl4 was used as a precursor to reduce using acidic solution during preparation process. The effects of the amount of AC on the characteristics of composites were investigated. TGA technique was used to evaluate the amount of TiO2 and AC in TiO2/AC composite. The adsorption properties of TiO2/AC were characterized using XRD, TEM, N2 adsorption/desorption, FTIR and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy techniques. The photocatalytic activities of the composites were investigated by measuring the removal of acid dye. Results showed that the specific surface area of TiO2/AC increased with increasing mass fraction of AC, while the energy band gap was reduced. It was clearly shown that TiO2 in the presence of AC produced a synergistic effect of the composite and led to an increase in photocatalytic performance. Also, the reuse of TiO2 with 20% AC nanocomposites for dye removal showed a high reuse efficiency above 90% in photocatalytic dye degradation.