TY - JOUR
T1 - Blue TiO2 with tunable oxygen-vacancy defects for enhanced photocatalytic diesel oil degradation
AU - Lee, Yong Jieh
AU - Putri, Lutfi Kurnianditia
AU - Ng, Boon Junn
AU - Tan, Lling Lling
AU - Wu, Ta Yeong
AU - Chai, Siang-Piao
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the Monash University Malaysia under the MUM-ASEAN Research Grant Scheme (Ref. No.: ASE-000010). This work was also supported by the High-Performance Computer (HPC) Platform from Monash University Malaysia.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/2/15
Y1 - 2023/2/15
N2 - The proliferation of marine petroleum exploitation has culminated in the undesired release of oils into the aquatic ecosystem, causing detrimental environmental effects. Photocatalysis proffers a solution to degrade recalcitrant diesel oil utilizing abundant solar energy, in which TiO2 is the perennial photocatalyst of choice. However, it suffers from the low utilization of the light spectrum and the rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. In this work, oxygen-vacancy-rich blue TiO2 was employed to overcome the shortcomings of TiO2 in diesel oil degradation which has historically not been attempted. These oxygen vacancies induce favourable mid gap states to extend the optical absorption capabilities and enrich the photocatalyst charge density. Additionally, oxygen vacancies enhance the separation of electron hole pairs by acting as trap states, evident from increased trap-mediated capture fluorescence. Consequently, a 1.60-fold enhancement of diesel oil degradation performance compared to pristine TiO2 was observed. Mechanistic insights revealed the restructuring of diesel alkane distribution upon degradation corollary to the cleavage of hydrocarbon chains, illustrating that short alkanes experience a greater susceptibility to degradation compared to long alkanes. GC–MS analysis elucidates that shorter chained alkanes, alkenes, alcohols and cycloalkanes were produced as a product of the degradation.
AB - The proliferation of marine petroleum exploitation has culminated in the undesired release of oils into the aquatic ecosystem, causing detrimental environmental effects. Photocatalysis proffers a solution to degrade recalcitrant diesel oil utilizing abundant solar energy, in which TiO2 is the perennial photocatalyst of choice. However, it suffers from the low utilization of the light spectrum and the rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. In this work, oxygen-vacancy-rich blue TiO2 was employed to overcome the shortcomings of TiO2 in diesel oil degradation which has historically not been attempted. These oxygen vacancies induce favourable mid gap states to extend the optical absorption capabilities and enrich the photocatalyst charge density. Additionally, oxygen vacancies enhance the separation of electron hole pairs by acting as trap states, evident from increased trap-mediated capture fluorescence. Consequently, a 1.60-fold enhancement of diesel oil degradation performance compared to pristine TiO2 was observed. Mechanistic insights revealed the restructuring of diesel alkane distribution upon degradation corollary to the cleavage of hydrocarbon chains, illustrating that short alkanes experience a greater susceptibility to degradation compared to long alkanes. GC–MS analysis elucidates that shorter chained alkanes, alkenes, alcohols and cycloalkanes were produced as a product of the degradation.
KW - Diesel oil degradation
KW - Oxygen vacancy
KW - Photocatalysis
KW - Surface defect engineering
KW - Titanium dioxide
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142504512&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2022.155716
DO - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2022.155716
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85142504512
VL - 611
JO - Applied Surface Science
JF - Applied Surface Science
SN - 0169-4332
IS - Part B
M1 - 155716
ER -