Visible-light-assisted photocatalytic degradation of gaseous formaldehyde by parallel-plate reactor coated with Cr ion-implanted TiO2 thin film

Sol–gel nano titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin film can be activated by the ultraviolet (UV) radiation available in sunlight to perform solar photocatalysis. The useful spectral range can be extended from UV to visible light by implantation of metal ion into the TiO2 lattice. As a result, the solar visible light can be utilized more efficiently to enhance the solar photocatalysis. In this study, visible-light-assisted photocatalytic glass reactors were built by parallel borosilicate glass plates coated on the upper surfaces with sol–gel TiO2 thin films implanted with chromium (Cr) ion. The properties of the Cr/TiO2 thin films were fully characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal gravity (TG) analysis, scanning-electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. In the performance tests, a metal halide lamp was used as an external light source to resemble the solar visible spectral radiation. The performance of a Cr/TiO2 photoreactor was measured in terms of its photocatalytic degradation of gaseous formaldehyde in a single pass of contaminated air flowing through the photoreactor. The experimental results demonstrated the promise of using light-transmitting glass substrate to allow transmission and distribution of light from an external source to achieve solar photocatalysis. In the design of a parallel-plate photoreactor, it is important to properly control the Cr ion loading so that each Cr/TiO2-coated glass plate absorbs a portion of the incident light for its photocatalytic activation and allows light transmission available for the remaining coated plates.