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Updated: Dec 20, 2025
The Effect of Interfacial Chemical Bonding in TiO2-SiO2 Composites on Their Photocatalytic NOx Abatement Performance
Published on: July 4, 2017
Development of Porous Titania Structure with Improved Photocatalytic Activity: Response Surface Modeling and
Elvira Mahu1,2, Maria Ignat1,2, Corneliu Cojocaru1,2
1Laboratory of Materials Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, 11 Carol I Boulevard, 700506 Iasi, Romania.
Abstract:
Porous titania was successfully synthesized by an ultrasound-assisted sol-gel route. The synthesis process was empirically modeled and optimized using the response surface methodology (RSM). Input variables adopted for optimization dealt with the weight ratio of precursors (r) and the sonication time (t), representing the used factors in the synthesis procedure. With regard to application, the synthesized TiO2 samples were tested for the photodegradation of two water-soluble organic pollutants under UV-Vis irradiation. Optimal conditions for the efficient pollutants' photodegradation were found to involve a precursors ratio of 3 and a sonication time of 60 min. Thus, the M5 sample prepared under the founded optimal conditions yielded the maximal removal efficiencies of 98.4% and 46.3% for the photodegradation of CR dye and 2,4-D herbicide, respectively. In addition, the photodegradation kinetics revealed the pseudo first-order rate constants, showing the photodegradation of CR (k = 8.86 × 10-2 min-1) by M5 sample is about 1.3-fold faster than the photodegradation of 2,4-D pesticide (k = 6.84 × 10-2 min-1).
