Synergetic effect between adsorption and photodegradation on nanostructured TiO2/activated carbon fiber felt porous composites for toluene removal

The low quantum efficiency and limited adsorption efficiency of TiO2 makes it only fit for the removal of VOCS with low concentrations. Herein, we for the first time fabricated nanostructured TiO2/activated carbon fiber felt (TiO2/ACFF) porous composites by the in situ deposition of TiO2 microspheres on the carbon fibers in ACFF. Interestingly, the TiO2 microspheres exhibit hierarchical nanostructures constructed by nanocrystals as building blocks. The TiO2/ACFF porous composites possess excellent adsorption and photodegradation properties for toluene because of the synergetic effects between the nanostructured TiO2 and ACFF. The adsorption efficiencies of the TiO2/ACFF porous composites reach approximately 98% at the toluene concentration (<1150 ppm) and approximately 77% even at the high concentration of 6900 ppm. Moreover, the ACFF in the TiO2/ACFF porous composites significantly enhances photocatalytic property for toluene by hindering the recombination of electron-hole pairs, reducing the TiO2 band gap energy (E-g) to 2.95 eV and accelerating toluene adsorption. At the toluene concentrations of 230 ppm and 460 ppm, the photocatalytic oxidation efficiency of toluene into CO2 arrives at 100% and 81.5%, respectively. Therefore, the TiO2/ACFF porous composites with synergetic adsorption and photocatalytic activities have great potentials for toluene removal. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.