Roles of UV light strength and auxiliary electric field in the photocatalytic degradation effect of organic contaminant

Abstract

The accumulation of contaminants on the electrical devices could adversely affect the operation. The present work used photocatalytic functional material to coat on the surface of the electrical devices to prevent the influence of organic contamination. This kind of material was mainly composed of TiO(2) that can remove the contamination by the effect of photooxidation. The photocatalysis was affected by the strength of UV light and electric field. In the experiment, methyl orange (MO) was used as the organic contaminant. The effect of UV light and auxiliary electric field were analysed based on the theoretical simulation. With the stronger UV light, more electron–hole pairs were generated, photocatalytic effect became more pronounced. With the auxiliary electric field, the recombination of electron and hole could be restrained that would increase the productive rate of hole; therefore, more hydroxyl radical will be produced to degrade MO.

Keywords

• titanium compounds
• photodissociation
• photocatalysis
• photocatalysts
• oxidation
• dyes
• photocatalytic functional material
• organic contamination
• organic contaminant
• auxiliary electric field
• photocatalytic effect
• UV light strength
• photocatalytic degradation effect
• photooxidation
• methyl orange
• electron–hole pairs
• TiO(2)