Immobilization of the catalyst TiO2 powder (Degussa P25) onto a metallic foam (AISI 314 50ppi)

S.W. DA SILVA; J.P. BORTOLOZZI; E.D. BANÚS; A.M. BERNARDES; M.A. ULLA

Medellín

Congreso; XXIV Congreso Iberoamericano de Catálisis; 2014

Sociedad Colombiana de Catálisis (SoCCat)

TiO2 powder (Degussa P25) is one of the most widely used photocatalysts. However, when it is used in processes of heterogeneous photocatalysis for the treatment of water and/or wastewater organic pollutant degradation, it presents operational problems with catalyst loss and an extra-step of powder recovering. Using immobilized catalysts would avoid this extra recovering step, thus reducing costs and environmental impacts. The aim of this paper is to immobilize the Degussa P25 photocatalyst on AISI 314 50ppi foams by an immersion process. The foams were characterized before and after TiO2 immobilization by different techniques. The results indicated a mass increase in immobilized foams of 25%, good film adherence on the foam walls and maintenance of the anatase phase in the immobilized catalyst. In addition to these promising results, the photocatalytic performance of the immobilized TiO2 foams is currently being evaluated by different water treatment processes.