Photocatalytic degradation of phenol using ionic liquid stabilized TiO₂ nanoparticles

This paper describes the successful synthesis of ionic liquid stabilized TiO₂ and it was characterized by various instrumental techniques such as UV–vis, FT-IR, XRD and TEM analysis. The photocatalytic activity of ionic liquid stabilized TiO₂ nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs) was evaluated by analyzing the degradation of aqueous phenol solution by UV irradiation. The effect of phase composition of TiO₂ NPs namely, anatase and rutile, on photocatalytic activity was studied using chemical oxygen demand (COD) and fluorescence measurements. The results show that pure anatase phase shows lesser photocatalytic activity compared to a mixed anatase: rutile phase (80:20) and the degradation mechanism is also investigated. The remarkable point is that the ionic liquid tunes the phases of the TiO₂ NPs and this work provides a promising approach to fabricate TiO₂ based catalyst with efficient photocatalytic performance. (paper)