Synthesis and photocatalytic activity of sepiolite supportednano-TiO₂ composites prepared by a mild solid-state sintering process

Supported nano-TiO₂photocatalysts play an important role in water environment restoration because of their potential application to photocatalytic degradation of organic contaminants in waste water. With sepiolite as the support, the nano-TiO₂/sepiolite composite photocatalysts were synthesized by an easily operated and mild solid-state sintering process.The microstructureand photocatalytic property of the sepiolite supportednano-TiO₂ composites were characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, UV-Visible spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. In addition, the influences of calcination temperature and load ratios on the photocatalytic activity of sepiolite supported nano-TiO₂ composites were studied.The results indicated that appropriate ratios of sepiolite supports to nano-TiO₂contributed to uniform dispersion of nanoparticles, and enhanced the absorption ability within the UV-Vis range, and consequently increased the photocatalytic activity of the composites.Under the preparation conditions of 90 wt. % TiO₂ loading and calcinated at 400 °C, a maximum in photocatalytic activity ofnano-TiO₂ sepiolite composite was obtained.