Comparison of TiO₂ nanowires and TiO₂ nanoparticles for photodegradation of resorcinol as endocrine model

In this contribution, comparison of TiO₂ nanowires (TiO₂ NWs) and TiO₂ nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs) for photodegradation of resorcinol as endocrine model was extensively carried out. The results indicated that X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the TiO₂ NWs exhibited brookite and anatase phases; whereas, the prepared TiO₂ NPs is pure anatase phase. TEM images of TiO₂ NWs exhibit clear nanowire structures with the 2 μm length and diameter of 50–100 nm, while the TiO₂ NPs particle sizes are 5–10 nm. The prepared TiO₂ NWs and TiO₂ NPs were compared with commercial photocatalyst TiO₂-P25 by the determination of their photocatalytic performances. The photocatalytic efficiencies of TiO₂ NWs, TiO₂ NPs, and TiO₂ P25 are amounted to be 98.7%, 98.4%, and 83% within 3-h illumination. However, the photodegradation rates TiO₂ NPs, TiO₂ NWs, and TiO₂-P25 are 12.24 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ min⁻¹, 10.79 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ min⁻1, and 5.77 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ min⁻¹, i.e., the photodegradation rates TiO₂ NPs is slightly faster than TiO₂ NWs, and they are significantly greater 2 times than that of commercial photocatalysts TiO₂-P25. The apparent rate constant k (min⁻¹) value of TiO₂ NPs and TiO₂ NWs is higher than that of commercial TiO₂-P25 for 3.3 and 3.25 times, respectively. From the economic point of view, TiO₂ NPs calcined at 400 °C are chosen to be the optimum for saving energy in the preparation step without loss of photocatalytic efficiency. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].