Sonocatalytic degradation of methylene blue in the presence of TiO2 doped carbon nanostructures-catalytic and adsorption comparison by different carbon forms

Abstract

© 2014 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.The main objective of this work was to evaluate nanocomposites formed by TiO2-CNT (carbon nanotube) and TiO2-C (resorcinol/formaldehyde) via a sonocatalytic process. The synthesis of composites was performed by the sol-gel method using titanium isopropoxide (Ti(OPr)4-TTIP), acetic acid and ethylene glycol as dispersing medium. Ultrasound was used as the irradiation source and methylene blue was chosen as a model substance. In addition, the adsorption capacity was studied in an attempt to achieve greater ratio degradation/adsorption. The methylene blue concentration after adsorption and sonocatalysis was investigated by UV-vis spectroscopy. It was found that adsorption was an important factor to achieve high degradation capacity. However, the sonocatalytic activity decreased when adsorption was too intense.

Keywords