Photo-oxidation of rhodamine-6-G via TiO 2 and Au/TiO 2 -bound polythene beads

Abstract

It is very important to improve the efficiency of water detoxification techniques. In this study, TiO 2 or gold- TiO 2 (Au/ TiO 2) nanocomposite-bound polythene beads were used for the photo-oxidation of rhodamine 6G (R6G) as a model of water organic pollutants. Simple thermal procedures were employed for anchoring TiO 2 or Au/ TiO 2 nanocomposites to polythene beads. The results revealed that the synthesized Au/ TiO 2 composites exhibited both considerably higher absorption capability of organic pollutants and better photocatalytic activity for the photo-oxidation of R-6G than pure titania. The better photocatalytic activity of the synthesized Au/ TiO 2 composites film than that of the pure titania film was attributed to high capacity of light absorption intensity and easy diffusion of absorbed pollutants on the absorption sites to photogenerated oxidizing radicals on the photoactive sites. Copyright © 2011 Souad A. Elfeky and Al-Sayed A. Al-Sherbini.