A photocatalytic reactor derived from microstructured polymer optical fiber preform

This paper reports a novel photocatalytic reactor having 547 pieces of TiO2 nanocrystal-film-modified capillaries, which is derived from a microstructured polymer optical fiber (MPOF) preform. The photocatalytic active TiO2 nanocrystal film is obtained by microwave processing of the TiO2 gel films in the MPOF preform. The MPOF preform not only plays a role as a light-transmitting media, also a TiO2 supporting and waste-water pipe to supply for photocatalytic degradation of toxic organic solute. The photocatalytic reactor has so large surface area for TiO2 loading that photodegradation efficiency is enhanced. As far as we know, the photocatalytic reactor based on the super-multi channels capillary waveguide arrays has not been reported before.