Wood residues (including sawmill and paper mill discards) and municipal paper waste provide a great amount of lignocellulosic biomass that contaminate water. In photocatalytic oxidation processes these useless and abundant material can be converted into valuable compounds or completely mineralized. For such process new nanosized photocatalytic materials have been synthesized. Iron has been chosen as a transition metal to enhance the photocatalytic activity. Iron and titania have been supported on high surface area materials: zeolite and silica by a novel wet impregnation method modified with the application of ultrasonic treatment [1]. Such prepared materials have been precisely characterized by different techniques: XRD, BET-BJH, XPS, HRTEM, SEM, UV-vis showing very interesting physicochemical properties. The results of the EDX spectra confirm the loading of TiO2 on zeolite matrix and the presence of Fe atoms [Fig.1]. The photocatalytic activity of these materials has been checked in two processes: photoselective conversion of cellulose-derived compounds and in phenol mineralization. Photocatalytic oxidation of phenol is currently a promising method for degradation of such pollutants. Moreover, the partial photo-oxidation of sugars can lead to the production of high-value chemicals, among them the so-called platform molecules (e.g. glucaric acid) [2].Literature:[1] F. Tomul, Appl. Surf. Sci., 258 (2011) 1836.[2] J. C. Colmenares et al., Bioresour. Technol. 102 (2011) 11254.Acknowledgements: This research was supported by a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant within the 7th European Community Framework Programme.

Fe-modified nanostructured TiO<sub>2</sub> photocatalyst in the fight against water contaminants

244th National Meeting (2012)

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Fe-modified nanostructured TiO2 photocatalyst in the fight against water contaminants

Fe-modified nanostructured TiO₂ photocatalyst in the fight against water contaminants