Kinetic approach for the adsorption-photodecomposition properties of mesoporous silica-titania

Abstract

We have fabricated mesoporous silica-titania by a sol–gel method and evaluated the photocatalytic activity using acetaldehyde. The synthesized mesoporous silica-titania was effective for the removal of acetaldehyde from gas phase by adsorption and photodecomposition. In this study, the kinetic approach was carried out in order to clarify the adsorption-photodecomposition property of mesoporous silica-titania. The adsorption, direct photodecomposition and concerted adsorption-photodecomposition can be separately described in our simulation curves, which indicates that the adsorbability strongly affects the removal of acetaldehyde in the early stage and the photodecomposition after the strong adsorption of acetaldehyde on mesoporous silica-titania is important for the complete removal of acetaldehyde from gas phase.