Avaliação da atividade fotocatalítica de Nb 2O5

Abstract

As heterogeneous photocatalysis has proved to be one of the most promising methods for the treatment of effluents, the study of photocatalytic activity of new catalysts is of great interest. Thus, degradation tests of burnt sugar solution were conducted through using 2 g of Nb2O5 and TiO2, massic, and Nb2O5 impregnated in glass beads (5.0, 10 and 15% Nb2O5 glass-1) under UV radiation for 168 hours. TiO2 and Nb2O5 were submitted to the agglomeration process (particle size: 0.210 and 0.297 mm) and calcined at 500°C for 5h. Nb2O5 was solubilized in oxalic acid (0.5 mol L-1) at 70°C for 8h, mixed with the glass beads, dried at 110°C for 12h and calcined at 500°C for 5h. The efficiency of the photocatalytic process was evaluated by UV-VIS spectrophotometry and DNS method. The results showed that catalysts of Nb 2O5 are promising for application in photocatalysis, mainly 15% Nb2O5 glass-1, which presented similar results to TiO2.