Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dyes via Defect-Rich TiO2 Prepared by Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma

Yanqin Li; Wei Wang; Fu Wang; Lanbo Di; Shengchao Yang; Shengjie Zhu; Yongbin Yao; Cunhua Ma; Bin Dai; Feng Yu

doi:10.3390/nano9050720

Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dyes via Defect-Rich TiO₂ Prepared by Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2019 May 9;9(5):720. doi: 10.3390/nano9050720.

Authors

Yanqin Li¹, Wei Wang², Fu Wang³, Lanbo Di⁴, Shengchao Yang⁵, Shengjie Zhu⁶, Yongbin Yao⁷, Cunhua Ma⁸, Bin Dai⁹, Feng Yu¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. liyanqin112@163.com.
² Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. wangw@shzu.edu.cn.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China. wangfu@sjtu.edu.cn.
⁴ College of Physical Science and Technology, Dalian University, Dalian 116622, China. dilanbo@163.com.
⁵ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. shengchao.yang@shzu.edu.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. zsj97262724@163.com.
⁷ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. yongbinyao0321@sina.com.
⁸ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. mchua@shzu.edu.cn.
⁹ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. db_tea@shzu.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. yufeng05@mails.ucas.ac.cn.

Abstract

The dye wastewater produced in the printing and dyeing industry causes serious harm to the natural environment. TiO₂ usually shows photocatalytic degradation of dye under the irradiation ultravilet light rather than visible light. In this work, a large number of oxygen vacancies and Ti³⁺ defects were generated on the surface of the TiO₂ nanoparticles via Ar plasma. Compared with pristine TiO₂ nanoparticles, the as-obtained Ar plasma-treated TiO₂ (Ar-TiO₂) nanoparticles make the energy band gap reduce from 3.21 eV to 3.17 eV and exhibit enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes. The Ar-TiO₂ obtained exhibited excellent degradation properties of methyl orange (MO); the degradation rate under sunlight irradiation was 99.6% in 30 min, and the photocatalytic performance was about twice that of the original TiO₂ nanoparticles (49%). The degradation rate under visible light (λ > 400 nm) irradiation was 89% in 150 min, and the photocatalytic performance of the Ar-TiO₂ was approaching ~4 times higher than that of the original TiO₂ nanoparticles (23%). Ar-TiO₂ also showed good degradation performance in degrading rhodamine B (Rho B) and methylene blue (MB). We believe that this plasma strategy provides a new method for improving the photocatalytic activity of other metal oxides.

Keywords: defects; organic dye; photocatalytic degradation; plasma; titanium dioxide.

Grants and funding

No. 21663022/Cunhua Ma