Enhanced photocatalytic activity of TiO2 by micrometer-scale flower-like morphology for gaseous elemental mercury removal

Abstract A flower-like TiO 2 photocatlyst has been fabricated using hydrothermal method with the changing of sodium hydroxide volume to control the morphology so as to enhance the photocataltic activity. The as-prepared photocatalysts has entire anatase phase with numerous nanowires covered on its surface, which structure is conducive to the higher BET surface area (86.7910 m 2 /g) and lower recombination between holes and photoelectrons. The photocatalytic ability was tested by oxidation of gaseous Hg 0 in a lab-scale reactor, and TiO 2 -5 is found to be the best efficiency and 80 °C is the optimum photocatalytic reaction temperature. The photocatalytic oxidation mechanism has also been proposed.