Photocatalytic nitrate reduction over Pd-Cu/TiO2

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2014

Authors

Olívia Soares (Author) FEUP; Fernando Pereira (Author) FEUP; José Órfão (Author) FEUP; Joaquim Luís Faria (Author) FEUP; Cláudia Silva (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Chemical Engineering Journal

Vol. 251

Pages: 123-130

ISSN: 1385-8947

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 42 Citations

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 58 Citations

Scientific classification

CORDIS: Physical sciences > Chemistry

FOS: Engineering and technology > Chemical engineering

Associated Projects

LA 20 - PROJECTO ESTRATÉGICO - LA 20 - 2013-2014

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-009-CWA

DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2014.04.030

Abstract (EN): The extension of photocatalytic nitrate reduction in water by a 1%Pd-1%Cu (%wt) catalyst supported on TiO2 was evaluated under different reaction conditions. A series of electron sacrificial donors such as formic acid, oxalic acid, ethanol, methanol, and humic acid were used for inhibiting the mechanism of electron/hole recombination on the semiconductor by hole scavenging. In addition, the roles of H-2 as reducing agent and CO2 as buffer are also discussed. The photocatalytic process is found to be more selective towards nitrogen than the dark catalytic process. Hole scavengers, or reducing H-2 increase significantly the photocatalytic reduction of nitrate. Complete (100%) conversion was obtained when both H-2 and CO2 were used as reducing and buffer agent, respectively. Among the hole scavengers tested, 0.08 M formic acid solution represents the best compromise between nitrate conversion (84%) and nitrogen selectivity (83%).

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 8