Ytterbium Doped TiO₂ Nanofibers on Activated Carbon Fibers Enhances Adsorption and Photocatalytic Activities for Toluene Removal

Abstract

The combination of activated carbon fiber (ACF) adsorbents and ytterbium-doped TiO 2 (Yb-TiO 2 ) photocatalysts is a promising strategy for toluene removal. Herein, we firstly constructed Yb-TiO 2 /ACF porous materials (Yb-TiACFs) by the treatment of TiO 2 /ACF porous materials (TiACFs) with Yb(NO 3 ) 3 solutions. The ultralong Yb-TiO 2 nanofibers that were composed of many nanocrystals along [101] direction twisted around ACFs. The synergetic effects of Yb-TiO 2 and ACFs promoted toluene adsorption, and the adsorption trends matched well with pseudo-second-order kinetics model. It was firstly found that ACFs and Yb 3 + dopants improved TiO 2 quantum efficiency by driving electron-hole separation and enhancing light adsorption activity. Yb-TiACFs promoted the photocatalytic oxidation of toluene, and the photocatalytic activity was better than TiO 2 nanocrystals (P25, Evonik Degussa). The toluene photodegradation trend on Yb-TiACFs was fit well with apparent first-order reaction kinetics model. The interesting findings demonstrated that Yb-TiACFs were a promising platform for toluene removal via adsorption and photocatalysis synergetic effects.

Selective Cocatalyst Decoration of Narrow‐Bandgap Broken‐Gap Heterojunction for Directional Charge Transfer and High Photocatalytic Properties

“…Besides, commercial carbon adsorption property will help enriching the toluene gas on active Bi/Bi 2 S 3 / Bi/MnO 2 /MnO x and enhance the catalytic processes. [45,46]…”

Impact of Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) Modification on Its Application to Pollution Treatment—A Review

“…Loading TiO 2 on the carrier can effectively overcome the problems mentioned above [45]. At present, the non-metallic materials commonly used in loading TiO 2 can be divided into non-metallic porous minerals, glasses, carbon materials, and polymer materials.…”