Photocatalytic degradation of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) using transition metal-doped titanium dioxide immobilized on fiberglass cloth

摘要

Transition metal (Fe, V and W)-doped TiO_2 was synthesized via the solvothermal technique and immobilized onto fiberglass cloth (FGC) for uses in photocatalytic decomposition of gaseous volatile organic compounds-benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX)-under visible light. Results were compared to that of the standard commercial pure TiO_2 (P25) coated FGC. All doped samples exhibit higher visible light catalytic activity than the pure TiO_2. The V-doped sample shows the highest photocatalytic activity followed by the W- and Fe-doped samples. The UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra reveal that the V-doped sample has the highest visible light absorption followed by the W- and Fe-doped samples. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns indicate that all doped samples contain both anatase and rutile phases with the majority (>80%) being anatase. No new peaks associated with dopant oxides can be observed, suggesting that the transition metal (TM) dopants are well mixed into the TiO_2 lattice, or are below the detection limit of the XRD. The X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectra of the Ti K-edge transition indicate that most Ti ions are in a tetravalent state with octahedral coordination, but with increased lattice distortion from Fe- to V- and W-doped samples. Our results show that the TM-doped TiO_2 were successfully synthesized and immobilized onto flexible fiberglass cloth suitable for treatment of gaseous organic pollutants under visible light.