Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants diluted in water using TiO2 loaded on fluoride-modified hydrophobic mesoporous silica

The synthesis of the hydrophobic mesoporous silica (denoted as HMS(F)) was performed using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), tetraethylammonium fluoride (TEAF) as the source of the fluoride and dodecylamine (DDA) as templates. The TiO2 loaded on the hydrophobic HMS(F) (TiO2/HMS(F)) exhibited the efficient photocatalytic performance for the degradation of alcohols (2-propanol and 2-hexanol) diluted in water. The amount of adsorption of alcohols and the photocatalytic reactivity for the degradation increased with increasing the content of fluoride ions in these photocatalysts. The hydrophobic mesoporous surface is suitable as photocatalytic reaction field for the degradation of organic compounds diluted water.