Abstract:

TiO₂/tourmaline composite photocatalysts were prepared by sol-gel method. The activities of the composite photocatalysts were studied by the photodegradation of methyl orange experiments. The results showed that the degradation activity of organic compounds could be improved significantly by added 2% tourmaline ratio in the composite photocatalyst preparation. The degradation rate (0.5 h) was up to 99.87%, increased by 20%, which was better than that of the pure TiO₂ (83.64%). By using the methods XRD, BET and SEM, it was found that the structure of tourmaline was not changed via the heat treatment at 800 ℃ for a long time, but it was destroyed via the heat treatment at 900 ℃ for the same time. The TiO₂ particles appeared as conglobulation and evenly covered on the surface of tourmaline to form a particle layer by the analysis of SEM.

Key words: composite photocatalysts, heat treatment, tourmaline, TiO₂