Natural sunlight driven highly efficient photocatalysis for simultaneous degradation of rhodamine B and methyl orange using I/C codoped TiO2 photocatalyst

Ji-Chao Wang; Hui-Hui Lou; Zhi-Hua Xu; Cheng-Xing Cui; Zhong-Jun Li; Kai Jiang; Yu-Ping Zhang; Ling-Bo Qu; Weina Shi

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.08.008

Natural sunlight driven highly efficient photocatalysis for simultaneous degradation of rhodamine B and methyl orange using I/C codoped TiO₂ photocatalyst

J Hazard Mater. 2018 Oct 15:360:356-363. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.08.008. Epub 2018 Aug 6.

Authors

Ji-Chao Wang¹, Hui-Hui Lou², Zhi-Hua Xu², Cheng-Xing Cui², Zhong-Jun Li³, Kai Jiang⁴, Yu-Ping Zhang⁵, Ling-Bo Qu³, Weina Shi⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, 453000, China; Post-doctoral Station of Environmental Science and Engineering, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453000, China. Electronic address: wangjichao@hist.edu.cn.
² College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, 453000, China.
³ College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, China.
⁴ Post-doctoral Station of Environmental Science and Engineering, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453000, China.
⁵ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, 453000, China. Electronic address: beijing2008zyp@163.com.
⁶ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xinxiang University, Xinxiang 453003, China. Electronic address: shiweina516@163.com.

PMID: 30130694
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.08.008

Abstract

Increasing the efficiency of dye degradation is a critical issue for the application for photocatalysis. It is one of the greatest challenges to enhance the utilization of photo generated carriers in semiconductor, especially for sunlight irradiation. In this study, I/C-codoped TiO₂ was synthesized by a simple solvothermal-calcination method. The codoping interstitial carbon and substitutional iodine not only widened the light absorption range of the TiO₂ photocatalysts, but also enhanced the separation of photo-induced carriers. The photocatalytic activities of RhB and MO degradation over the 4-I/C-TiO₂ photocatalyst could reach 98.2% and 94.2% after 25 min visible light irradiation (λ ≥ 400 nm), respectively. Notably, 4-I/C-TiO₂ showed good activity for MO and RhB mixed degradation and could also accomplish the photocatalytic degradation in the above mixed system under natural sunlight irradiation. According to the dark catalytic experiment, I/C-codoping could effectively accelerate the formation of hydroxyl radicals from the generated H₂O₂, which was formed for the enhanced photocatalytic activity of dye degradation. The gained knowledge may provide some insights into the photocatalytic degradation over the codoped TiO₂ catalyst.

Keywords: Codoping; H(2)O(2); Hydroxyl radical; Natural sunlight; Photocatalytic degradation.