Effects of O2 and H2O on TiO2 photocatalytic mass loss self-cleaning efficiency for thin hydrocarbons layers (original) (raw)

Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry, 2021

Abstract

Abstract The self-cleaning properties provided by photocatalytic reactions have raised a lot of interest for many applications. Nowadays, the widespread analysis methods to study photocatalytic self-cleaning comprise mainly indirect methods such as UV–VIS spectroscopy, chromatography or contact angles measurements. Quartz Crystal Microbalance is another appropriate way to study how the surface is decontaminated because it has the advantage to directly measure the reactant mass. In this study the latter was used to investigate various parameters such as mass loss kinetics, effect of photocatalyst or contaminant effective thicknesses, illumination flux … A special attention was paid to the effects of humidity and O2 on the photocatalytic removal of nanometric paraffin oil (hydrocarbons) films over TiO2. QCM measurements were carried out for several H2O and O2 relative contents in the exposure. Ultimately, water is not essential but acts as a reaction promoter while O2 tends to be essential without significantly affecting the photocatalytic rate provided it is present in sufficient amount. Considering these observations and potential degradation pathways of paraffin oil hydrocarbons, the role of H2O and O2 is discussed.

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