Enhanced Ofloxacin Degradation Efficiency on Porous CeTi2O6 Photocatalyst - CTAB induced Porosity

Background: Photocatalytic oxidation of organic pollutants in the environment is being studied for more than half a century. Titanate has the activity on the degradation of organic pollutants under UV light illumination. Template directed sol-gel method is capable of producing porous structure in titanate during high temperature thermal treatment. Methods: The materials were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, surface area and pore size analyses, UV-Visible spectrometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Photocatalytic activity of the CeTi2O6 material was evaluated through ofloxacin degradation. Results: Brannerite structured CeTi2O6 was the major component in the samples, and the addition of CTAB caused a slight growth of CeTi2O6 crystals. Porous structure formed in the porous sample after the removal of CTAB template, and the surface area and pore volume were greatly enlarged. The first order reaction rate constant for photocatalytic degradation of ofloxacin was 9.60x10(-3) min(-1) on the nonporous CeTi2O6 sample, and it was as large as 2.44x10(-2) min(-1) on the porous CeTi2O6 sample. The addition of CTAB can influence the physico-chemical properties of the porous CeTi2O6, such as the improved activity on photocatalytic degradation of ofloxacin. Conclusion: The CeTi2O6 samples composed of majority brannerite CeTi2O6, and CeTi2O6 crystallite sizes for the nonporous and porous samples were 38.1 and 43.2 nm. The burning up of CTAB during calcination produced abundant pores in the porous material. After 50 min of reaction, photocatalytic degradation efficiencies on the nonporous and porous CeTi2O6 samples were 38.1% and 70.5%.

Automated summary

Synthesis of CeTi2O6 material using template-directed sol-gel method led to the formation of porous structure after removal of CTAB template, resulting in greatly increased surface area and pore volume. Addition of CTAB can enhance the photocatalytic degradation activity of CeTi2O6 towards ofloxacin.