Photocatalytic degradation of gaseous benzene with H3PW12O40/TiO2/palygorskite composite catalyst

H3PW12O40/TiO2/palygorskite composite photocatalysts were prepared by the sol-gel method and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and N-2 adsorption-desorption measurement. These results indicated that the self-made composite photocatalysts had excellent catalytic performance of degradation of gaseous benzene. In the case of the benzene concentration at 100 mg/m(3), over the composite catalysts H3PW12O40/TiO2/palygorskite with mass ratio of 1: 5: 5 calcined at 350 degrees C, reached 96.3% after 210 min UV irradiation. The gaseous benzene photo-catalytic degradation was mainly caused by strong oxidizing property of HPW, the TiO2 electron-holes and oxygen synergy effect. The degradation followed pseudo-first-order reaction process and the main products were CO2 and H2O. (C) 2015 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B. V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.