Gołąbiewska A, Paszkiewicz-Gawron M, Sadzińska A, Lisowski W, Grabowska E, Zaleska-Medynska A, Łuczak J. Fabrication and photoactivity of ionic liquid-TiO
2 structures for efficient visible-light-induced photocatalytic decomposition of organic pollutants in aqueous phase.
BEILSTEIN JOURNAL OF NANOTECHNOLOGY 2018;
9:580-590. [PMID:
29527433 PMCID:
PMC5827804 DOI:
10.3762/bjnano.9.54]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2017] [Accepted: 01/19/2018] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
To investigate the effect of the ionic liquid (IL) chain length on the surface properties and photoactivity of TiO2, a series of TiO2 microspheres have been synthesized via a solvothermal method assisted by 1-methyl-3-octadecylimidazolium chloride ([ODMIM][Cl]) and 1-methyl-3-tetradecylimidazolium chloride ([TDMIM][Cl]). All as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), scanning transmission microscopy (STEM) and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area method, whereas the photocatalytic activity was evaluated by the degradation of phenol in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation (λ > 420 nm). The highest photoefficiency (four times higher than pristine TiO2) was observed for the TiO2 sample obtained in the presence of [TDMIM][Cl] for a IL to TiO2 precursor molar ratio of 1:3. It was revealed that interactions between the ions of the ionic liquid and the surface of the growing titanium dioxide spheres results in a red-shift of absorption edge for the IL-TiO2 semiconductors. In this regard, the direct increase of the photoactivity of IL-TiO2 in comparison to pristine TiO2 was observed. The active species trapping experiments indicated that O2•- is the main active species, created at the surface of the IL-TiO2 material under visible-light illumination, and is responsible for the effective phenol degradation.
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