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Water Practice & Technology © IWA Publishing 2006 |
doi10.2166/wpt.2006.073
Novel TiO2 Nanocatalysts for Wastewater Purification- Tapping Energy from the Sun
Y. Liu1, J. Li1, X. Qiu2, C. Burda2
1Department of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA
2Center of Chemical Dynamics & Nanomaterials Research, Department of Chemistry,
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
ABSTRACT
Water treatment using TiO2 semiconductor as a durable heterogeneous photocatalyst has been the focus of environmentalists in recent years. We currently developed an inexpensive and highly efficient approach for synthesizing nitrogen doped TiO2 with lower band-gap energy that can respond to visible light. Doping on the molecular scale led to an enhanced nitrogen concentration of up to 21.8%. Reflectance measurements showed the synthesized N-doped TiO2 nanoparticles are catalytically active with the absorbance that extends into the visible region up to 600nm. The water purification potential of this new class of compounds was evaluated by studying the photodegradation of Acid Orange 7 (AO7) and E. coli. Experiments were conducted to compare the photocatalytic activities of N-doped TiO2 nanocatalysts and commercially available Degussa P25 power under identical solar light exposure. N-doped TiO2 demonstrated superior photocatalytic activities in both chemical compound degradation and bactericidal reactions. The result of this study shows the potential of applying new generations of catalyst for wastewater purification and disinfection.
Keywords: Azo dye; E.coli; Nitrogen doped TiO2; Photocatalysis; Solar light; Wastewater
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