Developing of reticulated ceramic photocatalyst for efficient photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous toluene

In this study, a reticulated ceramic photocatalyst was developed to conduct the photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous toluene at high concentration. Toluene was used as a target pollutant to be degraded mainly due to its high toxicity and health effect. It was aimed to prove the potential of reticulated ceramic material with open and interconnected porous structure, high mechanical property, high surface area and low cost for toxic gaseous removal. As a result of immobilizing the TiO2 catalyst on the reticulated ceramic material with three different sintering temperatures, the best photocatalytic performance was observed at 800 °C of sintering temperature due to the anatase to rutile ratio of TiO2 catalyst. Photocatalytic oxidation of toluene was conducted at continuous and periodic illumination and resulted in similar removal efficiency of toluene under both conditions. However, the removal efficiency of toluene was found as 71.21 % under continuous illumination, whereas it was 60.55 % under periodic illumination. The ceramic photocatalysts showed excellent stability in the photocatalytic oxidation of toluene for six cycles totally 9120 min.