Modified Titanium Dioxide for Water Detoxification and Disinfection

Abstract

TiO2 photocatalysis is gaining increasing attention due to its many unique features, such as its capability of achieving complete mineralization of organic wastes, easy operation, and environmentally friendly process. However, there are several problems associated with it, e.g. its large bandgap energy, high recombination rate of the photo-generated charge carriers and non-porous nature of commercially available TiO2. In this thesis work, efforts were made to modify TiO2 with a primary objective of enhancing its photoactivity under UV light or developing visible-light-responsive TiO2-based photocatalysts. The results showed that mesoporous tri-crystalline TiO2, fabricated by a simple soft-template method, displayed high photocatalytic activity towards oxidation of Orange II dye under UV light. Besides, a facile one-pot hydrothermal synthesis route under strong basic environment was developed to synthesize Au-loaded TiO2 nanotubes with enhanced visible light absorption capability as well as improved photocatalytic performance towards destruction of Orange II and E.Coli under visible light illumination.