Study of the phenol photocatalytic degradation over TiO2 modified by sulfation, fluorination, and platinum nanoparticles photodeposition

• Phenol photodegradation on TiO2 modified by sulfation, fluorination, and Pt addition.
• Sulfation, fluorination, and Pt addition modified the hydroxylation of TiO2 surface.
• Fluorination leads to a high hydroxylated TiO2 drives to a high phenol degradation rate.
• The highest photocatalytic activity was obtained on Pt–S–TiO2 catalysts.

In this work, titanium dioxide has been modified by sulfation, fluorination and simultaneous Pt nanoparticles deposition; the influence of these treatments on the photocatalytic activity of this oxide has been studied. A complete characterization study was carried out and it was observed that sulfation, fluorination and metallization were important factors influencing the TiO2 properties. The photocatalytic activity of the materials prepared was evaluated in the phenol degradation and it was found that TiO2 fluorination significantly increased the phenol photodegradation rate, compared with bare TiO2, sulfated TiO2 or the commercial TiO2 Degussa P25. It was also found that Pt photodeposition on sulphated TiO2 notably increased the photocatalytic activity of this oxide, while Pt on fluorinated TiO2 did not modify significantly the phenol photodegradation rate.

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