One-Pot Synthesis of W-TiO2/SiO2 catalysts for the photodegradation of p -nitrophenol

Ulises Arellano Sánchez, Lifang Chen, Jin An Wang, Luis Enrique Noreña, Maximiliano Asomoza, Silvia Solis, Xiaolong Zhou, Yueqin Song, Jing Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Double modifications of TiO2 by doping with WO3 and by dispersing on a SiO2 support were made by the one-pot sol-gel method. Doping with W shifts the TiO2 band gap energy from 3.2 eV to around 3.06 eV. The surface area of the supported W-TiO2/SiO2 material was significantly increased, by approximately 3 times, in comparison to the bare TiO2. The photocatalytic activities of the catalysts were evaluated in the degradation reaction of p-nitrophenol in aqueous solution and basic medium. After 240 min of photodegradation, more than approximately 99% p-nitrophenol could be mineralized with the most active W-TiO2/SiO2 catalyst. Under UV irradiation, p-nitrophenol was initially photodegraded into hydroquinone and benzosemiquinone intermediates, which were further degraded into smaller fragments such as organic carboxylic acids and finally completely mineralized. A proposed photoreaction mechanism was presented based on the key roles of the surface hydroxyl species and superoxide radicals such as O2 - and OH, together with W6+/W5+ couples and e-/h+ pairs in the catalysts in the p-nitrophenol photodegradation. The one-pot sol-gel synthesis method was proven to be effective to obtain W-TiO2/SiO2 catalyst with large surface area and high photocatalytic activity, and it can be also used for the preparation of other heterogeneous catalysts.

Original languageEnglish
Article number5748586
JournalInternational Journal of Photoenergy
Volume2019
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019
Externally publishedYes

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