Fabrication of TiO2 Monolithic Photocatalyst and Evaluation of its Antibacterial Activity under Simulated Solar Irradiation

In this study, the TiO2 nanoparticles were coated on the monolithic surface by a dip-coating technique. Characterization of synthesized samples was determined by X-ray diffraction. Antibacterial application of the samples was investigated under simulated solar irradiation on Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. A 5.7 log CFU mL-1 decrease of E. coli was observed with TiO2 nanoparticles after 3 h irradiation, whereas the number of surviving E. coli cells decreased by 2.7 log CFU mL-1 with monolithic TiO2 at the same irradiating condition. Despite the reduction of photocatalytic antibacterial effect, the results confirmed the photocatalytic antibacterial activity of monolithic TiO2 under simulated sunlight irradiation as well as revealed its potential in practical water treatment applications.