title: Facile growth and characterization of TiO2 nanoparticles for photocatalytic degradation of 2,3-dichlorophenol: experimental optimization and comparison with commercial TiO2.
abstract: This paper reports the facile synthesis and characterizations of TiO2 nanoparticles by simple sol-gel ultrasonication followed by annealing process. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized in terms of their morphological and structural properties and utilized as efficient photocatalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of 2,3-dichlorophenol (2,3-DCP). The as-synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles were annealed at 350 degrees C for various time intervals (3-5 h) and by morphological and photocatalytic performances, it was found that the nanoparticles annealed for 5 hrs exhibits best morphological and photocatalytic properties. To optimize the photocatalytic reaction parameters, several experiments based on catalyst dose (0.25-1.00 g/L), pH of the solution (pH = 3-11) and initial concentration (10-100 mg/L) have been performed using commercially available TiO2 (PC-105). Under optimized conditions, the photocatalytic performance of synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles and TiO2 (PC-105) was compared and it was found that the synthesized nanoparticles exhibits better photocatalytic properties as compared to the commercially available TiO2 (PC-105).
authors.affiliation: University Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India.
authors.forename: Sushil Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kansal
authors.lastname: Mani
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Umar
authors.forename: Wenli
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Deng