Reaction Kinetics and Catalysis Letters, Vol.96, No.1, 147-155, 2009
Photocatalytic activity of TiO2 prepared by adding polyethyleneglycol
TiO2 was produced by the sol-gel method with the addition of polyethyleneglycol (PEG) to study the effects of the molecular weight and the addition percentage of PEG. Bisphenol A (BPA) degradation rate constants were highest as 3.07, 4.02 and 4.23 h(-1) at PEG addition percentages of 10%, 5% and 0.5%. After 12 h reaction, the total organic carbon (TOC) reductions in UV/TiO2, UV/TiO2/PEG(200, 10%), UV/TiO2/PEG(600, 5%) and UV/TiO2/PEG(3500, 0.5%) systems were 44%, 24%, 19% and 23%, in order. The results demonstrated that adding an appropriate percentage of PEG to the TiO2 preparation processes increased the BPA degradation and TOC reduction.