Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Salicylic Acid in Water-ethanol Mixtures from Titanium Dioxide Grafted with Hexadecyltrichlorosilane

The aim of this paper is to study the effect of the chemical modification on the photocatalytic properties of TiO2. The TiO2 Degussa-P25 nanoparticles are chemically modified using the hydrophobic organosilane hexadecyltrichlorosilane (HTS). The samples are employed as catalysts for salicylic acid photocatalytic oxidation in water-ethanol mixtures. The kinetics of salicylic acid photodegradation is investigated as a function of ethanol content in water-ethanol mixtures and initial HTS concentrations. The results indicate that the HTS groups are not degraded during the photocatalytic process. The TiO2 grafted by HTS is more efficient than bare TiO2 for the photodegradation process in presence of ethanol. The photodegradation process follows first order kinetics and the apparent rate constant increases linearly with the initial HTS concentration (amount of HTS grafted).