Síntesis y aplicación de homocompuestos de TiO ₂ a la eliminatión de contaminantes

There are some engineering problems for the widespread use of photocatalytic reactions. The use of particulate catalysts is the major cause of opacity in the reaction medium and also once the process is finished the photocatalyst is difficult to separate from the reaction medium. The solution to these problems lies in the deposition of the photocatalyst on support substrates. This deposition causes a large decrease in specific surface of the catalyst with a consequent decrease in its activity. In order to solve the problems using deposited photocatalysts in industrial processes, a film composed of particles of TiO ₂ having photocatalytic activity attached to the substrate by a binder film of TiO ₂ has been synthesized. Thus, the obtained material is an homocomposite composed of two distinct forms of the same chemical compound. In this way a photocatalytic active transparent material is obtained that is capable of being used industrially. Photocatalytic activity of this homocomposite material has been proved by the destruction of model contaminants in both aqueous and vapor phase.