Photocatalytic activity enhancement of TiO2 with adding Zn particles

APhotocatalysis process uses ambient oxygen from air and irradiation, fundamentally UV light, to generate oxidation and reduction which can degrade almost all harmful organic and inorganic compounds to nontoxic substances. This study was focused on enhancement of photocatalytic activity which improves the photocatlytic efficiency with $TiO_2$ particle by mixing of certain amounts of Zn particles. We analyzed degradation of organic pollutant materials such as toluene and phenol with the mixed photocatalysis by using UV-visible spectrophotometer and obtained a result that photocatalytic activity is increased with increasing amount of Zn particle. Especially, in the case of $TiO_2$ (1 mmol) and Zn (0.1 mmol) mixture photocatalyst, we obtained at least 2 times higher photocatalytic activity compared with the commercially available $TiO_2$ photocatalyst (Degussa P-25), indicating that our mixed photocatalyts (Zn-doped $TiO_2$) is very effective of removing both organic dye and pollutants and the conversion rate of toluene is much faster than that of phenol.