Photooxidation of Furfural with Phthalocyanine-sensitized TiO2 Particle Under Xenon Lamp*

Copper phthalocyanine was selected as the photosensitizer to sensitizer TiO2 in this experiment with furfural as the target pollutant. The composite catalysts(TiO2/CuPC) obtained showed a great activity under a xenon lamp. By experiments, the optimal preparation conditions of the composite catalysts were set as follows: the CuPC loading mass fraction was 1.5%, the mass fraction of acetylacetone was 0.3%, and the stirring time was 10 h. UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra, XRD, and BET were used to characterize the properties of the composite catalysts, which showed that after loading CuPC on TiO2, the composite catalyst retained the same crystal structure as pure TiO2 and the wavelength range of its absorption spectrum was broadened to 600-700 nm while its surface area was smaller than that of the pure TiO2. Under the optimal conditions, 20 mg/L furfural solution was degraded by nearly 90% and TOC by about 70%. When the catalyst was reused 6 times, the activity of the catalyst was still retained by about 75%