abstract
The photocatalytic TiO2-assisted decomposition of 2-(4-methylphenoxy)ethanol (MPET) in aqueous solution has been studied for the first time. The intermediate compounds of MPET photodegradation have been also determined. A toxic p-cresol is formed in significant quantities during the photocatalytic reaction. A solvent-exchange approach for a template-free preparation of spherical TiO2 particles has been described, which is based solely on precipitation of hydrous titania from aqueous titanium peroxo complex by using organic solvents. The proposed method favours the formation of spherical titania particles with a mean size varying from 50 to 260 nm depending on the choice of solvent. The procedure for converting nonporous titania spheres into mesoporous material maintaining the same spherical morphology has been developed. The synthesized TiO2 spheres demonstrate a degree of MPET photo-degradation close to that of the commercial titania Aeroxide P25, besides being successfully recovered and reused for four reaction cycles without loss of photocatalytic activity. The effectiveness of the commercial Aeroxide P25 in MPET photodegradation, on the other hand, suffers 10-time drop during the third reaction cycle, which is attributed to its poor recoverability because the photocatalyst is composed of small particles of 20 nm size. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
keywords
AQUEOUS SUSPENSION; AROMATIC ALCOHOLS; SELECTIVE OXIDATION; ORGANIC POLLUTANTS; HIGHLY EFFICIENT; TITANIA BEADS; SIZE; LIGHT; WATER; NANOPARTICLES
subject category
Engineering; Environmental Sciences & Ecology
authors
Ilkaeva, M; Krivtsov, I; Diaz, E; Amghouz, Z; Patino, Y; Khainakov, S; Garcia, JR; Ordonez, S
our authors
Marina Ilkaeva
Junior Researcheracknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish MINECO (MAT2016-78155-C2-1-R, MAT2013-40950-R, CTQ2011-29272-004-02), and the Government of the Principality of Asturias (GRUPINI4-060; GRUPINI4-078; and "Severo Ochoa" PhD grantBP-14-029 to M.I.) and FEDER. South Ural State University acknowledges financial support from Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (grant No 16.2674.2014/K). IK is grateful for the support by Act 211 Government of the Russian Federation, contract No 02.A03.21.0011. We thank Cogersa for carrying out the toxicity measurements.