Abstract
In order to cause contact between an oil slick and a photocatalytic material on seawater surface, titanium alkoxide was applied to hollow glass beads with a diameter of 30-70μm and a specific gravity of 0.15 to 0.60, and a film of titanium dioxide was formed on their surfaces. These beads were subjected to the experiments for degradation of oil slicks on seawater by means of the photocatalytic material. For the experiments, alkane, n-pentadecane (CH3 (CH2), 13CH3) with a thickness of approximately 0.2μm, n-pentadecane, was laid out on a distilled water surface at a volume of 20 mL and it was used as an experimental system. It has been observed that the beads were conveniently fixed on the boundary between the n-pentadecane and distilled water layers, when 10 mg of the beads were added to the system. Furthermore, it has been found that n-pentadecane was effectively degraded, after a small amount of sodium hypochlorite was dropped on the system, and ultraviolet light irradiated it using an exposure unit. As a result, the use of sodium hypochlorite promoted a degradable amount of oil slick 2.1 times greater than that without the reagent.
