Photoassisted oxidation of oil films on water. Progress report, January 1990-December 1990.

摘要

The objective of the project is to develop a method for the solar assisted oxidation of oil slicks. A semiconducting photocatalyst, titanium dioxide, is used. Upon absorbing a photon, an electron-hole pair is generated in the TiO(sub 2) microcrystal. The electron reacts with surface-adsorbed oxygen, reducing it to hydrogen peroxide; the hole directly oxidizes adsorbed organic compounds. Titanium dioxide is denser than either oil or seawater; the density of its anatase phase is 3.8 and that of its rutile phase is 4.3. In order to keep the titanium dioxide at the air/oil interface, it is attached to a low density, floating material. The particles of the latter are sufficiently small to make the system economical. Specifically, the photocatalyst particles are attached to inexpensive hollow glass microbeads of about 100(mu)m diameter. Those areas of the microbeads that are not covered by photocatalyst are made oleophilic, so that the microbeads will follow the oil slick and not migrate to either the air/water or the water/oil interface.