(374f) Green Pathways for Development of Nanostructured Aerogel Photocatalysts Effective At Both UV and Visible Range

Nano-structured highly porous TiO₂/WO₃/Fe³⁺ aerogel photocatalyst are prepared, characterized, and tested for model photo-catalytic reactions. The catalyst structure is tailored to capture environmental pollutants and destruct them under both u-v and visible light through oxidation.        

A novel and green method is utilized to prepare the unique surfactant templated aerogel photo-catalyst that has highly porous nanostructure with high surface area and tailored pore size distribution. Sol-gel process is combined with supercritical extraction, deposition and drying. Supercritical drying with heat treatment results in titanium dioxide anatase crystal form. Templates used further enable retention and tuning of the nano-pore structure and surface properties.  

The catalyst was characterized using AFM, SEM, FIB, XRD, XPS, BET and porosimetry prior to using in reactions. The band gap of the catalyst particles were determined using diffuse reflectance.       

Resulting aerogel TiO₂/WO₃/Fe³⁺ has similar photo-catalytic capability compared to highly optimized commercial Degussa P25 under UV exposure and offer much superior photo-catalytic capability under visible light exposure. The model reaction utilized employed Methylene Blue photo oxidation under Visible and UV light.