Influence of water temperature on the photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide

In this study, it was shown that a possible explanation of increasing photocatalytic activity with temperature may be the fact that with increasing water temperature, the amount of hydroxyl radicals in water also increases, because the ionic product of water increases with an increase in temperature. For measurements of the amount of hydroxyl radicals, the fluorescence technique was used. Terephthalic acid was used as a hydroxyl radical scavenger. After inducing of TiO2, positive holes in the valance band may react with OH ions and produce (OH)-O-center dot radicals, a strong oxidizing agent.