Abstract:

Deguessa P-25 films were immobilized on foam nickel substrate by a facile dip-coating route without any binder. The structural properties of the films were examined by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and other methods. It found that the increase of the P-25 loading in the sols led to the increment of the crystalline material (a.m. anatase (101)), agglomerates, microcracks and the specific surface area. Moreover, XPS analysis result showed that Ni element diffused from the porous nickel during calcinations can form a mixture of Ni and NiO combined on the films surface, which could restrain the recombination of electron-hole pairs, result in the enhancement of the photocatalytic activity. Ti-10 film prepared in 10% ethanol sol presents the optimum photocatalytic activity, wherein the Ni content detected by EDS analysis on the film surface is 12.29%. In order to further investigate stability and practicality, Ti-10 film was made into a newly designed three-dimensional photocatalytic reactor for the treatment of real chemical wastewater. Chemical wastewater is pretreated by slowly quartz sand filter in order to remove suspended matter and solid particles, and then flow directly into the three-dimensional photocatalytic reactor. This reactor has been running for one week, and the chemical oxygen demand of effluent can reach the first grade of national environmental standard.

Key words: photocatalysis, foam nickel, TiO₂, quinoline, wastewater treatment, photocatlytic reactor