• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.133-139
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• 2010

Photoelectrocatalytic decolorization of methlene blue (MB) in the presence of two types of carbon nanotube/titania and yttrium-treated carbon nanotube/titania electrodes in aqueous solutions were studied under visible light. The prepared composite electrodes were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, and photoelectrocatalytic activity. The photoelectrocatalytic performances of the supported catalysts were evaluated for the decolorization of MB solution under visible light irradiation. The results showed that yttrium incorporation enhanced the decolorization rate of MB. It was found that the photoelectrocatalytic degradation of a MB solution could be attributed to the combined effects caused by the photo-degradation of titania, the electron assistance of carbon nanotube network, the enhancement of yttrium and a function of the applied potential. The repeatability of photocatalytic activity was also tested. The presence of yttrium enhanced the hydrophillicity of yttrium-carbon nanotubes/titania electrode because more OH groups can be adsorbed on the surface.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2011

In this study, we prepared $TiO_2$ with the sol-gel method and controlled physico-chemical properties by a simple heat treatment. All materials were applied to photocatalytic decomposition of methylene blue and the material treated at 473 K showed the highest photocatalytic efficiency. The high performance resulted from a high adsorption amount of methylene blue due to a high surface area of $229.8m^2/g$. However, the material treated at 873 K, despite of a low surface area of $23.8m^2/g$ and a large particle size of 28.38 nm, exhibits a good photocatalytic performance due to the effect of mixed cyrstalline rutile and anatase phases formed by the high heat treatment temperature.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.583-591
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• 2008

In this study, two series of CNT/$TiO_2$ electrodes were prepared. The decrease of surface area compared with that of the pristine carbon nanotubes (CNTs) indicated the blocking of micropores on the surface of the CNTs; was further supported by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and field emission SEM (FE-SEM) observations. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the CNT/$TiO_2$ composites contained a mix of anatase and rutile forms of $TiO_2$ particles when the precursor was $TiO_2$ powder, whereas when the precursor was Ti ($OC_4H_7$) (TNB), the composites contained only the typical single and clear anatase $TiO_2$ particles. The energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) spectra showed the presence of C, O and Ti peaks for all samples. It was found that catalytic decomposition of methylene blue (MB) solution could be attributed to synthetic effects between the $TiO_2$ photocatalysis and electro-assisted CNTs network, and that photoelectrocatalytic oxidation increased with an increase of CNT composition. It was also found that the photoelectrocatalytic oxidation efficiency for MB is higher than that of photocatalytic oxidation. Moreover, the CNT/$TiO_2$ composites catalyst prepared by the impregnation method demonstrates higher photoelectrocatalytic activity than the mechanical mixture with the same CNT content.