ABSTRACT
A series of heterogeneous catalysts was prepared by doping zinc oxide with different palladium loadings in the range of 0.5%-1.5%. The prepared catalysts were characterized by SEM, TEM and XRD. These catalysts were applied to study the degradation of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE). An amount of 100 mg of each of these catalysts was added to an aqueous solution of 100 ppm of MTBE. The resulting mixtures were irradiated with UV light for a period of 5 h. A 99.7% removal of MTBE was achieved in the case of the zinc oxide photocatalyst particles doped with 1% Pd. The photoreaction was found to be a first-order one.
ABSTRACT
A series of binary oxide catalysts (ceria-ZnO) were prepared and doped with different amounts of palladium in the range of 0.5%-1.5%. The prepared catalysts were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD and XPS, as well as by N2 sorptiometry study. The XPS results confirmed the structure of the Pd CeO2-x-ZnO. The photocatalytic activity of these catalysts was evaluated for degradation of MTBE in water. These photocatalyst efficiently degrade a 100ppm aqueous solution of MTBE upon UV irradiation for 5h in the presence of 100mg of each of these photocatalysts. The removal of 99.6% of the MTBE was achieved with the ceria-ZnO catalyst doped with 1% Pd. In addition to the Pd loading, the N2 sorptiometry study introduced other factors that might affect the catalytic efficiency is the catalyst average pore sizes. The photoreaction was determined to be a first order reaction.
