Effect of preparation methods on photocatalytic properties of nano-TiO₂/diatomite composite

Abstract

In order to distinguish the effects of different preparation methods on the photocatalytic performance of nano-TiO2/diatomite composites, diatomite supported nano-TiO2 composite photocatalytic material was prepared by hydrolytic deposition method, co-precipitation method and the sol-gel method respectively. The grain size, surface properties, surface morphology, chemical constituent and pore size distribution of composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope and nitrogen adsorption. The photocatalytic activities of samples were examined by decolorization test of rhodamine B solutions. The results showed that the decolorization rate of the composites prepared by three methods reached more than 80% under the irradiation of 300 Watt High-pressure mercury lamp for 60 minutes. The sol-gel method reached 93.8%, which was due to the fact that the composites prepared by this method had the good dispersion of TiO2.

Keywords

• diatomite
• nano-tio₂
• photocatalysis