Nanocomposites and nanomaterials

APPLICATION OF TITANIA IMMOBILIZED ON GRANULAR ACTIVATED CARBON FOR ADSORPTION/DECOMPOSITION OF ORGANIC HALOGENS

Halyna Yankovych1 - Michael Elsässer2 - Nicola Hüsing2 - Miroslava Václavíková1

1Institute of Geotechnics Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 45, 04001 Košice, Slovakia.  e-mail: yankovych@saske.sk

2Department of Materials Science and Physics, University of Salzburg, Austria

Adsorbable organohalogens (AOX) are persistent organic pollutants frequently found in water, which pose serious environmental and health issues. Their degradation and/or removal become an important challenge. Among the existing technologies, photodegradation using semiconductor catalysts is a promising alternative method [1]. To overcome the typical weak adsorption capacity of photocatalyst, photocatalyst/adsorbent composites based on high surface area activated carbons and TiO2 can be used [2].
The present study is dedicated to the facile in situ sol-gel synthesis of composite material based on TiO2 and granular activated carbon. The synthesized composite was examined by SEM-EDX, BET, TG-DTG and XRD techniques. TiO2-GAC has the high surface area (907m2/g) combined with relatively high content of crystalline phase (21.9%). These benefits allow its application for adsorption/degradation of AOX. The prepared material possesses high adsorption capacity towards 4-chlorophenol, 4-bromophenol and 4-iodophenol. The photodegradation tests revealed the satisfactory tendency of AOX removal. However, the decomposition pathway is not clear and requires further studies.
Acknowledgment: The research has been supported by the VEGA 2/0156/19 MŠVVaŠ SR, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2016-NANOMED No 734641 as well as by Ernst Mach Grant. 
References:
1. Abedi K. et al. Decomposition of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) using NTP coupled with TiO2/GAC, ZnO/GAC, and TiO2–ZnO/GAC in a plasma-assisted catalysis system // Journal of Elect.- 2015.- 73.-P. 80-88.
2. Moral-Rodríguez A. et al. Tailoring the textural properties of an activated carbon for enhancing its adsorption capacity towards diclofenac from aqueous solution // Environ. Sci. Poll. Res. -2019.- 1.