Water reclaimation and reuse using photocatalyst : review and preliminary experiment

Abstract

Scientific studies on photocatalysis started about three decades ago. Titanium dioxide (TiO2), which is one of the most basic materials in our daily life, has emerged as an excellent photocatalyst material for environmental purification. TiO2 is close to being an ideal photocatalyst because it is relatively inexpensive, highly stable chemically and the photogenerated holes are highly oxidizing. This report will discuss the factors which affect TiO2 effectiveness, mechanism of photocatalysis, preparation of the catalyst and TiO2 dosage theory. Finally, the author will present his preliminary laboratory experiment using TiO2 to mineralize Methylene Blue. The comparison between different experiments will bring a step closer to finding the optimum condition to mineralize Methylene Blue. However, due to limitation, the experiments do not present the optimum condition. More experiment would be needed to obtain the best condition for mineralization.