scholarly journals Sulfur Dioxide Degradation by Composite Photocatalysts Prepared by Recycled Fine Aggregates and Nanoscale Titanium Dioxide

Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue-Fei Chen ◽  
Shi-Cong Kou

To alleviate the heavy burden on landfilling, construction and demolition wastes (C&DWs) are recycled and reused as aggregates in cementitious materials. However, the inherent characteristics of recycled fine aggregates (RFA), such as the high crushing index and high-water absorption, magnify the reusing difficulty. Nevertheless, attributing to the high porosity and high level of calcium hydroxides existing in the old mortar, RFA is featured with a high specific surface area and a high alkalinity. These features are useful to augment the total photo-degradation of SO2 by nano-TiO2 (NT) intermixed mortar, leading RFA to be an excellent potential carrier to load nano-TiO2 and prepare the composite photocatalyst. Hence, this study proposed to load NT onto the surface of RFAs and river sands (RSs) (the control) by the soaking method, preparing composite photocatalysts denoted as NT@RFA and NT@RS, respectively. The prepared composite photocatalysts were then utilized as sands in photocatalytic mortar to evaluate for SO2 degradation. Experiments identified a 50% higher amount of NT was loaded onto the surface of FRA relative to the control. This higher loading amount plus higher alkalinity ultimately translated into a higher photocatalytic activity. In addition, the mortar containing NT@RFA exhibited 46.3% higher physiochemical absorption and 23.9% higher photocatalytic activity than that containing NT@RS. In addition, the durability, embodied by the reuse and anti-abrasive properties, of NT@RFA exceeded that of NT@RS. The overall findings reveal that the NT@RFA not only garners beneficial effect from the high porosity but also generates positive effect from the high alkalinity. Though a number of studies deal with building materials with NT, this study is the first to load NT onto RFA and prepare composite photocatalysts which were then used as fine aggregates in building materials. Consequently, this study proves the potential high-added-value reusability of RFA in green construction materials and provides a low-cost, high-efficiency approach to degrade atmospheric SO2.

2021 ◽  
Vol 904 ◽  
pp. 350-357
Author(s):  
Tian Qing Cui ◽  
Jun Feng Ma ◽  
Qun Si Wang ◽  
Qi Zhou ◽  
Dong Bin Tang

A hydrothermal process was proposed to prepare BiVO4/ diatomite composite photocatalysts, where BiVO4 was grown from a precursor solution containing diatomite, and EDTA used as a chelating agent to prevent the precipitation of precursor solution compositions on diatomite before hydrothermal treatment. The effect of some processing parameters like diatomite percentage and Ag-loaded amount on their photocatalytic performance were also investigated in detail by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), BET, and UV‐Vis spectroscopy. The results show that BiVO4/ diatomite composite photocatalysts can be successfully prepared at 160 °C for the duration of 3h by the hydrothermal process. The diatomite has two significant impacts on their photocatalytic performance: (1) enhancing the dispersion of BiVO4 crystallites due to its high porosity and specific surface area to favor their photocatalytic performance, and (2) having a light screening effect to incident visible light to decrease their photocatalytic activity. Appropriately incorporating diatomite could improve their photocatalytic performance, but the overuse of diatomite would reduce that. Similarly, depositing Ag could effectively improve their photocatalytic activity because of its good light absorption and photosensitive characteristics, but excessive addition would result in their decrease since the overuse of Ag would also promote the electron-hole recombination.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2291
Author(s):  
Alessandro P. Fantilli ◽  
Daria Jóźwiak-Niedźwiedzka

The environmental impact of the Portland cement production and the large use of cement-based building materials is a growing problem [...]


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 463
Author(s):  
Ivan Janotka ◽  
Pavel Martauz ◽  
Michal Bačuvčík

In addition to the known uses of natural clays, less publication attention has been paid to clays returned to the production process. Industrially recovered natural clays such as bricks, tiles, sanitary ceramics, ceramic roofing tiles, etc., are applicable in building materials based on concrete as an artificial recycled aggregate or as a pozzolanic type II addition. In this way, the building products with higher added value are obtained from the originally landfilled waste. This paper details the research process of introducing concrete with recycled brick waste (RBW) up to the application output. The emphasis is placed on using a RBW brash as a partial replacement for natural aggregates and evaluating an RBW powder as a type II addition for use in concrete. A set of the results for an RBW is reported by the following: (a) an artificial RBW fine aggregate meets the required standardized parameters for use in industrially made concrete, (b) a RBW powder is suitable for use in concrete as industrially made type II addition TERRAMENT showing the same pozzolanic reactivity as a well-known and broadly used pozzolan-fly ash, and (c) such an RBW as aggregate and as powder are, therefore, suitable for the production of industrially made TRITECH Eco-designed ready-mixed concrete.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 1622
Author(s):  
Xiao-Pin Guo ◽  
Peng Zang ◽  
Yong-Mei Li ◽  
Dong-Su Bi

2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB) is a common taste and odor compound caused by off-flavor secondary metabolites, which represents one of the greatest challenges for drinking water utilities worldwide. A TiO2-coated activated carbon (TiO2/PAC) has been synthesized using the sol-gel method. A new TiO2/PAC photocatalyst has been successfully employed in photodegradation of 2-MIB under UV light irradiation. In addition, the combined results of XRD, SEM-EDX, FTIR and UV-Vis suggested that the nano-TiO2 had been successfully loaded on the surface of PAC. Experimental results of 2-MIB removal indicated that the adsorption capacities of PAC for 2-MIB were higher than that of TiO2/PAC. However, in the natural organic matter (NOM) bearing water, the removal efficiency of 2-MIB by TiO2/PAC and PAC were 97.8% and 65.4%, respectively, under UV light irradiation. Moreover, it was shown that the presence of NOMs had a distinct effect on the removal of MIB by TiO2/PAC and PAC. In addition, a simplified equivalent background compound (SEBC) model could not only be used to describe the competitive adsorption of MIB and NOM, but also represent the photocatalytic process. In comparison to other related studies, there are a few novel composite photocatalysts that could efficiently and rapidly remove MIB by the combination of adsorption and photocatalysis.


RSC Advances ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (39) ◽  
pp. 23024-23037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengxia Zhang ◽  
Wenjing Li ◽  
Tianyi Jiang ◽  
Xuemei Li ◽  
Yuanyuan Shao ◽  
...  

Three novel visible-light-driven composite photocatalysts were synthesized by hydrothermal method. The effects of introducing PDIs with different structures into TiO2 were evaluated by assaying the photodegradation rate of methylene blue.


Catalysts ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Shtyka ◽  
Viktar Shatsila ◽  
Radoslaw Ciesielski ◽  
Adam Kedziora ◽  
Waldemar Maniukiewicz ◽  
...  

The photocatalytic activity of TiO2 depends on numerous factors, such as the chemical potential of electrons, charge transport properties, band-gap energy, and concentration of surface-active sites. A lot of research has been dedicated to determining the properties that have the most significant influence on the photocatalytic activity of semiconductors. Here, we demonstrated that the activity of TiO2 in the gas-phase reduction of CO2 is governed mainly by the desorption rate of the reaction intermediates and final products. This indicates that the specific surface area of TiO2 and binding strength of reaction intermediates and products are the main factors affecting the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 in the investigated process. Additionally, it was shown that rutile exhibits higher photocatalytic activity than anatase/rutile mixtures mainly due to its high efficiency in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.


2014 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 100-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonjaua Ranogajec ◽  
Andrijana Sever-Skapin ◽  
Ognjen Rudic ◽  
Snezana Vucetic

The surfaces of building materials are constantly exposed to the actions of environmental factors, pollutants of inorganic and organic origin as well as to microorganisms, which significantly contribute to corrosion phenomena.The application of coatings decreases the negative action of the pollutants minimizing their direct contact with the substrate. Different types of coatings with additional functions have been developed. A specific problem of these applications is the lack of compatibility of the photocatalysts with the surface of the building materials and the detachment of potentially toxic TiO2nanoparticles. In the present study, this problem was solved by the proper immobilization of TiO2nanoparticles onto the photocatalyst support, layered double hydroxides (LDHs). The newly formed coating possesses acceptable porosity for a porous building material (porosity within the range of 30-46 %) and satisfied photocatalytic activity, as well as mineralogical compatibility with the substrates (mortars, renders, bricks). Additionally, a positive effect considering the self-cleaning phenomenon was attained.


2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 775-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Dong Tan ◽  
De Fu Bi ◽  
Peng Hui Shi ◽  
Shi Hong Xu

The TiO2/NiFe2O4 (TN) composite nanoparticles with different mass ratios of NiFe2O4 to TiO2 were prepared via sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction was used to characterize the phase structure of TN. The results indicated that adulterating a smidgen of NiFe2O4 into the TiO2 (about 0.1%) can promote the phase transformation of TiO2, however, when the doping amount of NiFe2O4 surpasses 1%, the introduction of NiFe2O4 can inhibit the growth of TiO2 crystal grain and reduce the size of TiO2 crystal grain. The degradation experiment of methyl orange solution under UV illumination (253.7 nm) showed that the content of NiFe2O4 in the TN was higher, the photocatalytic activity of TN was worse, and the 0.1% TiO2/NiFe2O4 calcined at 400 °C presented the best photocatalytic activity.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Xu ◽  
Yang liu ◽  
xueping li ◽  
Mindong Chen

Direct Z-scheme Bi3TaO7/Zn0.5Cd0.5S composite photocatalysts were successfully prepared via an in-situ growth hydrothermal method. The photocatalytic activities of composites were investigated by the degradation of levofloxacin under visible light. And...


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