Open AccessPhotocatalytic digestion of total phosphorus utilising nanotitanium dioxide photocatalyst
Author(s) -
Dong Tian,
Tong Jianhua,
Bian Chao,
Sun Jizhou,
Xia Shanhong
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
micro and nano letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1750-0443
DOI - 10.1049/mnl.2013.0279
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , phosphorus , environmental chemistry , carbon dioxide , digestion (alchemy) , environmental science , titanium dioxide , chemistry , materials science , chromatography , organic chemistry , catalysis , metallurgy
Thermal‐assisted ultraviolet (UV) and H 2 O 2 ‐assisted UV photocatalytic oxidation methods utilizing nano‐TiO 2 photocatalyst are presented for the digestion of total phosphorus (TP) in water. The photocatalytic experiments for TP digestion were conducted using a 365 nm wavelength UV light, and TiO 2 nanoparticles immobilized on a silicon wafer as the photocatalyst. The effects of H 2 O 2 and temperature on the UV photocatalytic oxidation process are explained. The pseudo‐first‐order rate constants k of two phosphorus compounds for the UV digestion processes were obtained according to the pseudo‐first‐order equation. Both H 2 O 2 and heating could improve the efficiency of the UV photocatalytic oxidation method. But by comparison, the enhancement of heating on the UV photocatalysis process is more distinctly than H 2 O 2 . In addition, the thermal‐assisted UV digestion process will not lead to secondary pollution since no oxidant is needed in this digestion process, which makes it more compatible with electrochemical detection of TP. The thermal‐assisted UV digestion method was employed for the digestion of real water samples. Compared with the conventional thermal digestion method for TP detection, this thermal‐assisted UV digestion process decreased the digestion temperature from 120°C to 60°C within the same time, which enable the digestion process work at normal pressure.