A novel photocatalytic monolith reactor for multiphase heterogeneous photocatalysis

A novel reactor for multi-phase photocatalysis is presented, the so-called internally illuminated monolith reactor (IIMR). In the concept of the IIMR, side light emitting fibers are placed inside the channels of a ceramic monolith, equipped with a TiO2 photocatalyst coated on the wall of each individual channel. The photonic efficiency achieved with the IIMR reactor in the selective photo-oxidation of cyclohexane is 0.062, which is lower than obtained with a top illumination slurry reactor (0.151), but higher than the efficiency of an annular slurry reactor and reactor configuration with side light fibers immersed in a TiO2 slurry, reaching a photonic efficiency of 0.008 and 0.002, respectively. The results are discussed on the basis of differences in photon flows entering the reactors, and the related magnitude of product concentrations.

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