Student Major/Year in School
Chemical Engineering, third year
Faculty Mentor Information
Placidus Amama, Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering
Abstract
The design of catalysts for growth of carbon nanotubes is studied to develop recipes and mechanisms for controlled and scalable growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The objective of the study is to tune the photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) by coupling to multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). Multiwalled CNTs have been shown to act as an electron sink when coupled with TiO2, thereby inhibiting electron-hole recombination and enhancing photocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutants. A test using acetaldehyde confirmed our findings in the field, where the loading ratio of 99 wt% TiO2 (1 wt% CNTs) has a high efficiency in acetaldehyde degradation due to increased surface area as a result of improved TiO2 dispersion. Addition of CNTs, however, resulted in a reduction of acetaldehyde degradation rate.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Chan, Alison (2019). "CNT-TiO2 Composites for Photocatalytic Oxidation of Atmospheric Pollutants," Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference. https://newprairiepress.org/ksuugradresearch/2019/posters/71
CNT-TiO2 Composites for Photocatalytic Oxidation of Atmospheric Pollutants
The design of catalysts for growth of carbon nanotubes is studied to develop recipes and mechanisms for controlled and scalable growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The objective of the study is to tune the photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) by coupling to multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). Multiwalled CNTs have been shown to act as an electron sink when coupled with TiO2, thereby inhibiting electron-hole recombination and enhancing photocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutants. A test using acetaldehyde confirmed our findings in the field, where the loading ratio of 99 wt% TiO2 (1 wt% CNTs) has a high efficiency in acetaldehyde degradation due to increased surface area as a result of improved TiO2 dispersion. Addition of CNTs, however, resulted in a reduction of acetaldehyde degradation rate.
