Preparation of AC/TiO₂ Composites from Activated Carbon Modified by HNO₃ and Their Photocatalytic Activity

In this work, activated carbon (AC) after $HNO_3$ modification was used as the support during the production of supported $TiO_2$ to increase the high deposition efficiency and the photocatalytic activity. The results of $N_2$ adsorption showed that the BET surface area of samples decreased with an increasing of the concentration of $HNO_3$ due to the penetration of $TiO_2$. From XRD data, a single crystal structure of anatase peak was observed in diffraction patterns for the AC coated with titanium complexes. From the SEM results, almost all particles were aggregated with each other at the carbon surface and AC was covered with $TiO_2$ particles in all of the samples. The EDX spectra show the presence of C, O, Ti and other elements. It was also observed a decreasing of amount of C content with increasing Ti and O content from the EDX. The results of FT-IR revealed that the modified AC contained more surface oxygen bearing groups than that of the original AC. The effect of surface acidity and basity calculated from Boehm titration method was also evaluated from correlations as a function of NaOH, $NaHCO_3$, and $Na_2CO_3$ uptake. The surface modification of AC by $HNO_3$ leads to an increase in the catalytic efficiency of AC/$TiO_2$ catalysts, and the catalytic efficiency increases with increasing of $HNO_3$ concentration.