title: Removal of toluene from water by photocatalytic oxidation with activated carbon supported Fe(3+)-doped TiO2 nanotubes.
abstract: In this work, activated carbon (AC)-supported TiO2 containing 1.0% (mass percent) of 1.0 at.% (atomic percent) Fe(3+)-doped TiO2 nanotubes (Fe-TNTs) were successfully synthesized. The catalyst was used to effectively decompose toluene in water under O3/UV conditions, and some properties including the morphology, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction patterns, specific surface area and UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy were analyzed. A removal efficiency of 90.7% was achieved in the presence of fresh AC-supported Fe-TNTs calcined at 550 °C, with a pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.038/min. The removal efficiency of toluene was reduced when the catalysts were repeatedly used, since the amount of adsorption sites of the supporting substrates decreased. However, even after AC-supported catalyst was used four times, the removal efficiency of toluene was still sufficient in water treatment. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of AC-supported Fe-TNTs was related to the synergistic effect of AC adsorption and Fe-TNTs photocatalytic ozonation. The water from a petrochemical company in China was used to obtain the removal efficiency of the pollutants, and the toluene and total organic carbon removal efficiencies were 69.9% and 58.3%, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China E-mail: zhoubeihai@sina.com.
authors.forename: Rongfang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China E-mail: zhoubeihai@sina.com.
authors.forename: Beihai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: PetroChina Huabei Petrochemical Company, Renqiu, Hebei 062552, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D002384:Catalysis; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry*; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry*; D016877:Oxidants / Q000737:chemistry; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010126:Ozone / Q000737:chemistry; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects; D014050:Toluene / Q000737:chemistry*; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D016877:Oxidants; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C009495:titanium dioxide; D014050:Toluene; D010126:Ozone; D002244:Carbon; D014025:Titanium; D007501:Iron