Metal Titanate (ATiO3, A: Ni, Co, Mg, Zn) Nanorods for Toluene Photooxidation under LED Illumination
Anna P. Souri, Natalia Andrigiannaki, Marilena Moschogiannaki, V. Faka, G. Kiriakidis, Anna Malankowska, Adriana Zaleska‐Medynska, Vassiliοs Binas
Abstract
The increasing air pollution taking place in virtue of human activity has a novel impact in our health. Heterogeneous photocatalysis is a promising way of degrading volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that makes the quest of new and improved photocatalysts of great importance. Herein, perovskite-related materials ATiO3 with A = Mg, Ni, Co, Zn were synthesized through an ethylene glycol-mediated root, with ethylene glycol being used as a solvent and ligand. Characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) were used in order to confirm the structure, the nanorod morphology, their absorption in UV-vis, and the separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers. The highest photoactivity was observed for ZnTiO3 in which 62% of toluene was decomposed after 60 min under LED illumination (54 mW/cm2).