Photocatalytic degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxiacetic acid and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol with Zr-O2 and Mn/ZrO2 sol-gel materials

Because of its semiconductor properties, sol-gel zirconia can be used as a photocatalyst. When zirconia is doped with transition metals, its electronic properties are modified. In this work, sol-gel Mn/ZrO2 and ZrO2 materials were tested for photocatalytic degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxiacetic acid and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol. The powders were characterized by XRD, UV-Vis and Raman spectroscopy. The apparent rate constants were calculated assuming pseudo-first order kinetics. The results reveal that ZrO2 is effective as a photocatalyst; moreover, its photocatalytic properties improve when it is doped with manganese.