Author:
Soares Luana Góes,Kunst Sandra,Oliveira Cláudia Trindade,Alves Annelise Kopp
Abstract
Sustainability has driven the use of heterogeneous photocatalysis as one of the primary methods for environmental decontamination, reduction, degradation, remediation, or transformation of polluting chemical residues and purification treatment of effluents and wastewater. TiO<sub>2</sub> is the most commonly used semiconductor in heterogeneous photocatalysis. It acquires relevance, as it has favorable properties, such as non-toxicity, stability in a wide range of pH, economic viability, etc., which encourage its application as a semiconductor in photocatalytic processes. However, the photocatalytic capabilities of TiO<sub>2</sub> are only active in 3% of the solar spectrum, which limits its range of use. For this reason, some semiconductor metal oxides were incorporated into TiO<sub>2</sub> to increase its activation range in the UV-visible spectrum. Within this context, WO<sub>3</sub> is a metallic oxide widely used in mixtures with TiO<sub>2</sub>, aiming to improve its photocatalytic properties. Thus, this work synthesized TiO<sub>2</sub> and TiO<sub>2</sub> nanostructures mixed with two tungsten precursors (H<sub>2</sub>WO<sub>4</sub> and Na<sub>2</sub>WO<sub>4</sub>.2H<sub>2</sub>O) using a microwave-assisted hydrothermal route at 200°C for 120 minutes. The samples obtained were characterized by mL of a 20 ppm solution of methyl orange dye. The results show that it was possible to successfully produce TiO<sub>2</sub> and TiO<sub>2</sub> nanostructures containing tungsten precursors via a microwave-assisted hydrothermal route. This can be attributed to the fact that the energy associated with this temperature was sufficient to convert most of the precursors into crystalline products and little amorphous phase is present.