The photocatalytic degradation kinetics of gaseous formaldehyde flow using TiO2 nanowires

摘要： A high performance TiO2 nanowires photocatalyst was successfully prepared by a hydrothermal method to decompose gaseous formaldehyde into CO2 and H2O in a homemade tube reactor without secondary pollution under UV irradiation. The photocatalytic oxidization (PCO) kinetics fit well with the traditional Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW) model. Multiple parameters including formaldehyde concentration, flow rate, and light intensity were monitored online and proved to be key factors affecting the rate in the photocatalytic reactions. The crystallinity of photocatalyst and its surface reactive site density determined the adsorption equilibrium constant (KHCHO) of formaldehyde on TiO2. The experimental results show that the degradation kinetics of mobile gas-phase formaldehyde by TiO2 nanowires did not strictly conform to the first-order reaction kinetics, and its photocatalytic degradation rate increases with the increase of ultraviolet LED irradiation intensity. It takes only 8.6 minutes to completely degradate formaldehyde at a flow rate of 50 ml/min by 50 mg 700TiO2, and the reaction performance remains unchanged during the decomposing process of 1200 minutes.