Doping titanium dioxide with palladiun for enhancing the photocatalytic decontamination and mineralization of a refractory water pollutant

Abstract

The photocatalytic performance of a commercial TiO2 doped by incipient wet impregnation with palladium (sample named TiO2-Pd), was evaluated in the heterogeneous degradation process using as test molecule the clofibric acid (CA), a metabolism product of a drug used as blood lipid regulator. The catalyst was characterised by XRD, SEM and UV-VIS reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic potential of this new catalyst was evaluated at laboratory scale under UV-A irradiation conditions. The influence of a few key parameters was studied in order to optimize the process conditions. The results shown that TiO2-Pd can completely remove the target pollutant under the optimal conditions (0.2 g/L catalyst, 5 mg/L CA, 6.2 mW/cm2 irradiation flux). Moreover, the CA mineralization was evaluated by TOC and a 65% mineralization yield was obtained, confirming the good photocatalytic activity of TiO2-Pd.