Sintered TiO2/recycled glass composites designed for the potential degradation of waterborne pollutants

Abstract

Porous recycled glass beds were produced for the potential use in water remediation. The present work discusses the structural and mechanical characteristics of filters made of commercially available powdered recycled glass. The study measured the porosity and percolation performance of the sintered glass beds as a function of the sintering parameters and the particle size of the original powdered glass. Moreover, because TiO2 can serve as a photocatalyst to degrade organic pollutants, a TiO2/recycled glass composite was also studied. Optical microscopy helped measure the resulting porosity by quantitative image analysis. Finally, a performance map that specified the composite porosity, percolation, and compression characteristics was obtained as a function of sintering time, sintering temperature, glass particle size, and the percentage of TiO2 added.

Keywords

• pollutant degradation
• recycled glass
• titanium dioxide