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.