In-Hwa Lee

Photocatalytic degradation of 2-chlorophenol using Ag-doped TiO 2 nanofibers and a near-UV light-emitting diode system

This report investigated the photocatalytic degradation of 2-chlorophenol using TiO2 nanofibers and Ag-doped TiO2 nanofibers, synthesized using the sol-gel and electrospinning techniques, and an ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV-LED) system as a UV light source. The crystallite size of the Ag-doped TiO2 nanofibers was smaller than that of the TiO2 nanofibers, because silver retrained phase transformation not only controls the phase transformation but also inhibits the growth of anatase crystallites. The activation energies for the grain growth of the TiO2 nanofibers and the Ag-doped TiO2 nanofibers were estimated to be 20.84 and 27.01 kJ/mol, respectively. The photocatalytic degradation rate followed a pseudo-first-order equation. The rate constants (k) of the TiO2 nanofibers and the Ag-doped TiO2 nanofibers were 0.056 and 0.144 min-1, respectively.