Photodegradation of Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Through Pure TiO2 and V-Doped TiO2 Coated Glasses

  • Published : 2014.02.10

Abstract

$TiO_2$ possesses great photocatalytic properties but absorbs only UV light owing to high band gap energy (Eg = 3.2 eV). By narrowing the band gap through doping a metal ion, the photocatalytic activity can be enhanced in condition of the light of a higher than 365 nm wavelength. Main purpose for this study is to evaluate the activities of metal doped $TiO_2$ for degrading the volatile organic compounds (VOCs); p-xylene is chosen in the VOC removal test. Vanadium is selected in this study because an ionic radius of vanadium is almost the same as titanium ion and vanadium can be easily doped into $TiO_2$. V-doped $TiO_2$ was synthesized by sol-gel methods and compared with pure $TiO_2$. Pure TiO2 powder and V-doped $TiO_2$ powder were coated on glasses by spray coating method. UV-Visible spectrophotometer was used for the measurement of the band gap changes. VOC concentration degradation level was tested with using various UV light sources in an enclosed chamber. Catalytic activities of prepared samples were evaluated based on the experimental results and compared with coated pure $TiO_2$ sample.

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