Phosphorous-Based Titania Nanoparticles for the Photocatalytic Abatement of VOCs

In this work, different TiO2-based systems were synthesized. Specifically, phosphorous was considered as nonmetal dopant into TiO2 structure of the photocatalysts. The doped samples were herein labeled as TiO2-P0.6, TiO2-P0.7, and TiO2-P3, where 0.6, 0.7, and 3 indicate the average atomic phosphorus content into each sample. The physico-chemical properties of the samples were investigated by complementary techniques, including XRD, N2 physisorption at −196 °C, FESEM, EDX, XPS, and (DR)UV-Vis spectroscopies. Then, the samples were tested for the total oxidation of ethylene under two different sources: UVB (wavelength = 312 nm, intensity = 12 W m−2) and UVA (wavelength = 365 nm, intensity = 8 W m−2). The results under UVB source have shown that the most promising catalyst is TiO2-P3 (TOF = 7.5 μmol h−1 g−1, TOS = 160 min) and a positive reactivity trend was observed: the higher the P-content, the higher the reactivity. On the other hand, under the UVA source, the most promising catalyst is TiO2-P0.6 (TOF = 21.3 μmol h−1 g−1, TOS = 160 min). In fact, the samples with higher P-contents decrease their performances at longer TOS, likely due to the surface deposition of carbon-like molecules.