Degradation and mineralization of aqueous nitrobenzene using ETS 4 photocatalysis
AbstractThe microporous Engelhard titanosilicate ETS 4 is synthesized with the photocatalytic active Ti O Ti quantum wires in its framework. The transition metal cations are ion exchanged from their metal salt solutions to give M ETS 4 (M Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Ag) The synthesized materials are extensively characterized by XRD, FT IR, TGA, SEM and UV vis DRS. The photocatalytic activity of these synthesized samples is investigated for the degradation and mineralization of aqueous solution of nitrobenzene as a model pollutant compound. Decrease in chemical oxygen demand (COD) and absorbance of photodegraded NB revealed mineralization of NB. The photocatalytic activity of ETS 4 is attributed to the active Ti O Ti wires in its framework. Transition metal ions present in ETS 4 enhance the photocatalytic activity by the separating photogenerated charge carriers in ETS 4. Ag ions are found to show pronounced improvement in the photocatalytic activity compared to other transition metal ions. COD study reveals.