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Photocatalytic nitrate reduction over Pd-Cu/TiO2

Bibliographic Details

Summary:	The extension of photocatalytic nitrate reduction in water by a 1%Pd-1%Cu (%wt) catalyst supported on TiO2 was evaluated under different reaction conditions. A series of electron sacrificial donors such as formic acid, oxalic acid, ethanol, methanol, and humic acid were used for inhibiting the mechanism of electron/hole recombination on the semiconductor by hole scavenging. In addition, the roles of H-2 as reducing agent and CO2 as buffer are also discussed. The photocatalytic process is found to be more selective towards nitrogen than the dark catalytic process. Hole scavengers, or reducing H-2 increase significantly the photocatalytic reduction of nitrate. Complete (100%) conversion was obtained when both H-2 and CO2 were used as reducing and buffer agent, respectively. Among the hole scavengers tested, 0.08 M formic acid solution represents the best compromise between nitrate conversion (84%) and nitrogen selectivity (83%).
Subject:	Química, Engenharia química Chemistry, Chemical engineering
Country:	Portugal
Document type:	journal article
Access type:	Restricted
Associated institution:	Repositório Aberto da Universidade do Porto
Language:	English
Origin:	Repositório Aberto da Universidade do Porto