Luana Goes Soares da Silva
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
(UFRGS)
Email: lugoes.soares@gmail.com
Annelise Kopp Alves
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
(UFRGS)
ABSTRACT
Photodegradation is a good economical alternative for removing organic
pollutants from water, and several semiconductor metal oxides have been used in
the photodegradation of organic compounds. The use of TiO2, as a
semiconductor most commonly used in heterogeneous photocatalysis, is relevant,
due to its efficiency in the decomposition of pollutants from water, air, toxic
organic compounds, bacteria, etc. However, the photocatalytic capabilities of
TiO2 are active only in 3% of the solar spectrum, a fact that limits
its greater use. Based on this, this work proposes to synthesize TiO2,
and TiO2 fibers doped with H2WO4, by
electrospinning, relating the optical and photocatalytic properties of these
elements. The X-ray diffraction technique (XRD) was used to determine the
phases present. The morphology was observed through scanning electron
microscopy (SEM). And photodegradation tests over time, by analyzing the
discoloration of 125 mL of a 20 ppm solution of the orange methyl dye, in the
presence of the synthesized fibers, when irradiated by UVA-visible light. The
results show that the fibers containing tungsten were more efficient in the
photodegradation of the methyl orange dye, indicating a greater photoactivity
of this material in comparison with the standard P25 catalyst. This is possibly
due to the existing synchronization between the chemical and physical properties
of titanium and tungsten oxides, and the position of the valence band and the
conduction band of WO3 in relation to TiO2, which
inhibits the recombination of the electron pair/gap allowing the transfer of
charges between the two semiconductors, increasing the efficiency of the
process.
Keywords: Fibers, Photodegradation, Orange Methyl Dye.
Reviewed by Current Scientific Journal
on
agosto 07, 2022
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