Investigation of Photocatalyst Composites for Pollutant Degradation in a Microslit Reactor Utilizing High Throughput Screening Techniques

Abstract

The high‐throughput screening investigations on TiO2 based photocatalyst composites presented here have been carried out in a 60‐fold parallel photoreactor. Additional catalyst testing was performed in a microslit reactor system with immobilized catalysts. For further enhancing the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 (P25), composites of P25 and, for example, Bi2O3, CeO2, g‐C3N4, WO3 or ZnO were formulated in different nominal molar ratios. The catalysts' performances were assessed by their conversion of 17α‐ethinyl estradiol (EE2) in aqueous solutions, determined by LC–MS. Findings show rapid EE2 conversions in short residence times. The extensive testing of catalysts led to the conclusion that the photocatalytic conversion is rather a function of residence time than a function of the materials utilized. This makes adequate process development seem more important than material development. The novelty of this contribution lies in the unique combination of testing a wide range of composite catalysts in a unique microreactor geometry.

Microfluidic platform for screening the activity of immobilized photocatalysts for degradation of organic water pollutants

“…[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] However, screening in microreactors proved to be not just fast and reproducible 26 , but also reduced the reagent and photocatalyst consumption 27 . Using solid photocatalysts in flow is challenging, and various solutions were described like immobilization as a thin film, 26,[28][29][30] loading particles as dry powders into microchannels 27 and 3D printing using a mixture of the photocatalyst with a polymeric material 31 .…”