High-performance photocatalyst prepared from metallic titanium

Abstract

TiO₂ photocatalysts are attractive and promising materials due to their excellent properties such as high photocatalytic activity, stability and non-toxicity. Therefore, TiO₂ photocatalyst has applied into various fields such as environmental purifications. The major forms of TiO₂ photocatalysts are fine particles in order to obtain high surface areas. In order to fabricate commercial applications, the coating procedures using binder chemicals must be employed. However, the fine TiO₂ particles slightly scattered at the surface, since most particles are buried in binder chemicals, leading to obtaining poor photocatalytic activity. TiO₂ films can be easily formed on a metallic titanium substrate by anodization. However, the amorphous TiO₂ films with no photocatalytic activities are usually obtained in conventional anodization. We have successfully obtained the high performance photocatalytic TiO₂ films by using combined treatment of pre-nitridation and anodization. The photocatalytic TiO₂ films show the high photocatalytic activities to decompose the various volatile organic compounds such as trichloroethylene, isopropyl alcohol, acetaldehyde, and so on.

Keywords:

• TiO₂ photocatalyst
• metallic titanium
• environmental purification
• anodization
• nitridation