Photocatalytic oxidation of aldehydes/PCE using porous anatase titania and visible-light-responsive brookite titania

We have synthesized an annealed porous aerogel titania (LUAG2), which demonstrates a very high photocatalytic activity for aldehydes and perchloroethylene (PCE) photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) in gas phase under blacklight and fluorescent light irradiation. LUAG2 has a BET surface area of 237 m(2)/g and a porosity of 0.31 ( volume fraction). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows LUAG2 is nearly pure anatase. It has improved the destruction of PCE and aldehydes as a group by 10 - 34% with black light compared to Degussa P-25. The optimum water vapor to butyraldehyde molar ratio is around 1/3. LUAG2 also shows better mineralization to CO2 than Degussa P-25 TiO2 does. Under irradiation of a 4 W fluorescent lamp LUAG2 gives a consistently higher conversion than that of Degussa P-25. The highly active photocatalyst indicates potential applications in indoor and outdoor environmental pollution control. A visible-light-responsive TiO2, NTB 200, is also investigated for comparison purposes.