Microbial cellulose as a support for photocatalytic oxidation of toluene using TiO2 nanoparticles

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of toluene degradation using impregnated microbial cellulose (MC) with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (MC/TiO2). The effects of the initial toluene concentration and ultraviolet (UV) source on the degradation efficiency of tolu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of applied polymer science Vol. 133; no. 8
Main Authors Rezaee, Abbas, Pourtagi, Golamhossin, Hossini, Hooshyar, Loloi, Mahshid
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken Blackwell Publishing Ltd 20.02.2016
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
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Summary:ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of toluene degradation using impregnated microbial cellulose (MC) with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (MC/TiO2). The effects of the initial toluene concentration and ultraviolet (UV) source on the degradation efficiency of toluene have been evaluated. The experimental results showed that the rate of toluene degradation decreased with an increasing of the inlet toluene concentration. After 40 min reaction time, the decomposition rate (%) of toluene decreased from 72.3% to 36.02% for experiments conducted at 100 and 500 ppm, respectively. The degradation efficiency of toluene decreased with application of UVA source instead of UVC source. The toluene degradation efficiency (%) reached to 87.79% and 76.87% for UVC and UVA irradiation, respectively. At initial toluene concentration of 100 mg/L, toluene degradation efficiency for photocatalysis and photolysis processes were 70.2% and 10.65%, respectively; indicating that the photocatalytic degradation efficiency is significantly higher than that of photolytic degradation efficiency. Furthermore, photocatalytic degradation kinetics of toluene was studied and the rates of degradation were found to conform to pseudo‐second‐order kinetic. As shown in the present study, impregnation of TiO2 nanoparticles on MC/TiO2 significantly increases toluene removal for short exposure time. It can be concluded that the MC acted as a local toluene concentrator by adsorbing pollutants from the air stream, and thereby diffusing them to the TiO2 nanoparticles for photodegradation. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43051.
Bibliography:Tarbiat Modares University
ark:/67375/WNG-PS0MN3MG-G
istex:53DED76068501B90C68B16ED06F870C8117B81F1
ArticleID:APP43051
ISSN:0021-8995
1097-4628
DOI:10.1002/app.43051