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Biochar Nanoparticles over $TiO_{2}$ Nanotube Arrays: A Green Co-Catalyst to Boost the Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants
| Content Provider | MDPI |
|---|---|
| Author | Pinna, Marco Binda, Gilberto Altomare, Marco Marelli, Marcello Dossi, Carlo Monticelli, Damiano Spanu, Davide Recchia, Sandro |
| Copyright Year | 2021 |
| Description | Biochar nanoparticles (BC NPs), produced by low temperature pyrolysis (350 °C) of microalgae (Nannochloropsis sp.) and nutshells, are proposed as low-cost and sustainable co-catalysts to promote the photocatalytic activity of $TiO_{2}$ nanotube (NT) arrays towards the degradation of methylene blue (MB) used as an organic pollutant model molecule. BC NPs (size < 25 nm) were obtained by treating bulk BC (i.e., biomass after pyrolysis) by sonication–centrifugation cycles in a water solution. The filtered BC NPs dispersion was deposited by simple drop-casting on the $TiO_{2}$ NT support. The BC loading was varied by performing multiple depositions. Photocatalytic experiments under UV light (365 nm) revealed that the decoration with BC NPs significantly improves the $TiO_{2}$ photoactivity. Such enhancement is mainly influenced by the amount of BC deposited; upon optimizing the BC deposition conditions, the rate of photocatalytic degradation of MB increases approximately three times with respect to bare $TiO_{2}$, almost irrespective of the nature of the raw material. The greater photocatalytic activity of $BC-TiO_{2}$ can be attributed to the synergistic combination of reactant/product adsorption and catalytic degradation of the adsorbed organic pollutant, as well as an improved charge carrier separation and electron transfer. |
| Starting Page | 1048 |
| e-ISSN | 20734344 |
| DOI | 10.3390/catal11091048 |
| Journal | Catalysts |
| Issue Number | 9 |
| Volume Number | 11 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Publisher Date | 2021-08-29 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Catalysts Environmental Engineering Biochar Biomass Tio2 Nanotubes Photocatalysis Methylene Blue Microalgae Nutshell Carbon Dots Organic Pollutant Environmental Remediation |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
