Nano and micro-TiO2 for the photodegradation of ethanol: experimental data and kinetic modelling
Claudia L. Bianchi, Carlo Pirola, Federico Galli, Marta Stucchi, Sara Morandi,
Giuseppina Cerrato and Valentino Capucci.
With TiO2-photocatalysis being an effective alternative to other more expensive Advanced Oxidation
Processes (AOPs), the possibility of using micro-sized TiO2 materials rather than the well-known nanosized
powders is an important goal in terms of both handling safety and cost saving. In this work the
photodegradation of ethanol, used as a model VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) molecule, was
investigated, comparing the efficiency of both commercial nano- and micro- sized TiO2 samples.
In all
cases the same degradation pathway was observed, namely, a consecutive first-order reaction with
acetaldehyde as an intermediate product and CO2 and water as the final products.
All photocatalysts
were characterized by means of XRD, TEM, IR, BET and XPS analysis. A kinetic model was also developed
considering the collected experimental data and a regression of both adsorption and kinetic constants
was made using MATLAB software. The optimized parameters were used for simulating the experimental
data using an ode15s algorithm.
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