Photocatalytic degradation of acetone, acetaldehyde and toluene in gas-phase: Comparison between nano and micro-sized TiO2

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are prevalent components of indoor air pollution. The photocatalytic degradation could be an interesting method to degrade them.This paper reports the photoactivity study of two classical nano-sized and two micro-sized commercial TiO2 powdered samples. Photocatalytic tests have been performed following the degradation of acetone, acetaldehyde and toluene in the gas phase under UV light. An accurate study of the intermediate oxidation products was performed. XPS and FTIR analyses allowed to highlight the relationship between TiO2 surface properties and reactivity toward VOCs explaining the different behavior of the photocatalyst in case of hydrophilic and hydrophobic pollutants.

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► We demonstrate that micro-sized TiO2 is very promising in photocatalysis.
► We observed that the adsorption of VOCs on TiO2 surface is a crucial point.
► We demonstrated that the Ti-OH-Ti bridged species play a key role.
► With hydrophobic VOCs the catalysts surface seems to undergo irreversible changes.