Photocatalytic degradation of toluene by FeNTiO2 under UV and Visible light irradiation

Abstract

With the development of industries and increasing exhaust emissions from automobiles and factories, the concentration of pollutants is accumulate. One of these pollutants is toluene, which is harmful to human health and the environment. In this study, Fe-N co-doped TiO2 synthesized by one-pot sonoprecipetation method was used to degrade of toluene. Nanophotocatalyst was synthesized in 5 range of Fe/TiO2 ratio as: 0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 percentage. XRD, SEM, EDS, BET, FT-IR and UV-vis DRS were used to studying physical, chemical and optical properties of synthesized samples. The XRD analysis results confirmed the successful synthesis of the TiO2 with anatase crystaline phase and a decrease in the crystallinity after Fe and N doping. FESEM results indicated that sample particles have nano-sized structure of spherical shape and showed the particle size uniformity improvement and decreasing the size after doping Fe and N. SEM-EDX results described doping Fe and N without any aggregation on the photocatalyst surface. DRS analaysis results demonstrated a decreased bandgap energy by doping Fe and N. Tow satage quartz photoreactor was used to evaluate the photocatalytic degradation of toluene by synthesized nanophotocatalysts. Photocatalyst was coated on surface of a polytetrafluoroethylene layer. In this study, several synthesis parameters such as Fe/TiO2 ratio and effect of ultrasonic waves and also process parameters such as initial concentration of toluene, residence time and light source was investigated. According to the results, FeNTiO2 (5)-U (Fe/TiO2: 5% and with ultrasonic waves) showed the best photocatlytic performance. Selected nanophotocatalyst was evaluated in different conditons. The obtained results at the optimum conditions of t=25s, initial concentration 50 ppm under visible light showed the best photocatalytic degradation rate of toluene (65%).