Influence of activated carbon upon titania on aqueous photocatalytic consecutive runs of phenol photodegradation

The photocatalytic degradation of phenol was performed at room temperature in aqueous suspended mixtures of TiO₂ and activated carbon (AC). The main objective of the present work was to verify the potential of TiO₂/AC system in the photocatalytic degradation of phenol and the principal intermediate products after performing three consecutive runs. The phenol disappearance follows a first-order kinetics. Therefore, the apparent first-order rate constant of phenol and total organic carbon photodegradations were selected to evaluate the photoefficiency of the system. From the present results it can be concluded that there is a synergistic effect between both solids which is determined by the numbers of photocatalytic runs. From a practical point of view, TiO₂/AC is able to photomineralize phenol and total organic carbon for three and two, respectively, consecutive runs more efficiently than TiO₂ alone.