TiO2–Zeolite Metal Composites for Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants in Water
Nazely Diban, Aleksandra Pacuła, Izumi Kumakiri, Carmen Barquín, Marı́a J. Rivero, Ane Urtiaga, Inmaculada Ortíz
Abstract
Immobilization of photocatalysts in porous materials is an approach to significantly minimize the hazards of manipulation and recovery of nanoparticles. Inorganic materials, such as zeolites, are proposed as promising materials for photocatalyst immobilization mainly due to their photochemical stability. In this work, a green synthesis method is proposed to combine TiO2-based photocatalysts with commercial ZY zeolite. Moreover, a preliminary analysis of their performance as photocatalysts for the abatement of organic pollutants in waters was performed. Our results show that the physical mixture of TiO2 and zeolite maintains photocatalytic activity. Meanwhile, composites fabricated by doping TiO2–zeolite Y materials with silver and palladium nanoparticles do not contribute to improving the photocatalytic activity beyond that of TiO2.