Investigation of the effect of heat treatment process on characteristics and photocatalytic activity of TiO2-UV100 nanoparticles

The effect of heat treatment process on crystallite size, phase content, surface area, band gap energy and photocatalytic activity of TiO 2-UV100 nanoparticles were investigated. Heat treated TiO2 nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) isotherm and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) techniques, and its photocatalytic activity was investigated in the removal of C.I. Acid Red 88 (AR88), an anionic monoazo dye of acid class, as a model contaminant. Heat treatment process at 600 °C causes an increase in crystallite size and band gap energy of TiO2-UV100 nanoparticles. The results indicate that the nanoparticles treated for 1 h at 600 °C show the highest photocatalytic activity which can effectively degrade AR88 under UV-irradiation. Increasing heat treatment temperature above 600 °C led to reduction in TiO2 photoactivity which may be related to the anatase-rutile phase transformation, increasing particle size and decreasing specific surface area. Removal efficiency of AR88 with heat treated TiO 2-UV100 nanoparticles was sensitive to the operational parameters such as catalyst dosage, pollutant concentration and light intensity.