Involvement of chloride anion in photocatalytic process

The effect of Cl^- on photocatalytic degradation（PCD） of pollutants is an important factor since it is ubiquitous in nature. In general, Cl^- showed an inhibition on photodegradation due to its scavenging HO- radicals. In this paper, experiments were carried out to examine the effects of CI on the PCD of Methylene Blue （MB） and Orange II （OII） in aqueous TiO2 suspensions under UV light illumination. It was found that low concentration of Cl^- （ 〈 0.01 mol/L） showed little influence on both dyes, however, high concentration of Cl^- （ 〉 0.10 mol/L） had a very different influence on the decolorization of dyes： a significant inhibition for MB but a great promotion for Oll. In the presence of 0.50 mol/L Cl^- , the rate decreased by 70% for MB while increased 7.5-fold for Oll. Furthermore, two bands in the ultraviolet region of Oll were rapidly broken down. The proposed mechanism was discussed in detail.