title: Photocatalytic removal of 2-nitrophenol using silver and sulfur co-doped TiO₂under natural solar light.
abstract: To overcome the drawback of poor solar light utilization brought about by the narrow photoresponse range of TiO₂, a silver and sulfur co-doped TiO₂was synthesized. Using the prepared catalyst, solar photocatalytic degradation of 2-nitrophenol (2-NP) by a TiO₂-based catalyst was studied for the first time. Effects of the co-doping on the structural, optical and morphological properties of the synthesized nanoparticles were investigated by different characterization methods: X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption-desorption measurements, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Solar experiments showed that the co-doping with silver and sulfur significantly increased the photocatalytic activity. In various initial concentrations of 2-NP more than 99% of the contaminant was decomposed by Ag-S/TiO₂in less than 150 minutes, while the degradation efficiency was much less in the presence of bare TiO₂. Kinetic studies suggested that solar photocatalytic degradation of 2-NP is consistent with the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model. The rate constant of the reaction and adsorption constant of the modified photocatalyst were found to be 2.4 and 4.1 times larger than that of bare TiO₂, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran E-mail: vosoughi@sharif.edu.
authors.forename: Mehrzad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Feilizadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran E-mail: vosoughi@sharif.edu.
authors.forename: Amin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Delparish
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran E-mail: vosoughi@sharif.edu.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Toufigh Bararpour
authors.affiliation: Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hamed
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Abedini Najafabadi
authors.affiliation: Separation Processes Research Group, Department of Engineering, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohammad Esmaeil Zakeri
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran E-mail: vosoughi@sharif.edu; Institute for Biotechnology and Environment, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Manouchehr
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vossoughi
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D004396:Coloring Agents; D007700:Kinetics; D009596:Nitrophenols / Q000737:chemistry*; D010782:Photolysis; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013455:Sulfur / Q000737:chemistry*; D013472:Sunlight; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; D009596:Nitrophenols; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C009495:titanium dioxide; D012834:Silver; D013455:Sulfur; C045573:2-nitrophenol; D014025:Titanium