Photocatalytic degradation of 17-alfa-ethynylestradiol using cerium doped TiO2 films

ALFANO, O. M.; MARTIN, M. V.; SATUF, M. L.

Medellín

Conferencia; III Conferencia Iberoamericana sobre Procesos Avanzados de Oxidación; 2017

The photocatalytic activity of different TiO2 coatings for thedegradation of 17-α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) in aqueous solutionwas compared using a micro-reactor. Pure and cerium-doped TiO2coatings, prepared by the sol-gel method, were tested undersimulated sunlight. The influence of different variables on thephotocatalytic oxidation of EE2 was investigated: the number ofcoatings, the Ce loading, the initial pH and the flow rate in themicro-reactor. The highest percentage of degradation of EE2 wasobtained with 3 coatings of the catalyst with 0.3 Ce nominalatomic % at pH 8 and at a flow rate of 17 μL/min.In addition, the use of the micro-reactor allows the study ofdifferent operating conditions in a simple and fast way, and withminimum consumption of reagents.