Nanostructured hybrid TiO2-C for the photocatalytic conversion of phenol

• The photocatalytic activity of hybrid TiO2-C nanostructured materials.
• Eco-friendly and low-cost heterogeneous photocatalysts under UV–vis irradiation.
• First and second order reaction-rates approaches to estimate the photoactivity.
• Solvothermal synthesis.

The photocatalytic activity of hybrid TiO2-C materials prepared by solvothermal synthesis was studied using phenol as test molecule. The influence of furfural, chitosan and saccharose as carbon precursors was verified. Characterization was performed by N2 adsorption isotherms, XRD, DR/UV–vis and SEM. The carbon precursor affects the surface area and the XRD patterns of TiO2-C. First and second order reaction rates approaches were used to estimate the photocatalytic activity. TiO2-C materials showed an increase up to 4.4 higher photoactivity than commercial TiO2. The present results suggest that hybrid TiO2-C nanostructured materials can be potentially used as eco-friendly and low-cost heterogeneous photocatalysts under UV–vis irradiation.

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