Articles
  • Bi2InTaO7 compounds as promising photocatalysts for marine plankton removal
  • Leticia M. Torres-Martíneza, Isaías Juárez-Ramíreza, Juan S. Ramos-Garzaa, Francisco Vázquez-Acostaa, Ricardo Gómezb, ZhengYi Fuc and Soo Wohn Leed,*
  • a Departamento de Ecomateriales y Energía, Facultad de Ingeniería Civil, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León; Cd. Universitaria. C. P. 66450, San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, México b Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa, C. P. 09340, México, D. F. c Wuhan University of Technology, China d Department of Environment Engineering, Sun Moon University, Korea
Abstract
The removal of marine plankton, red (Amphidium carterae), and green (Tetraselmis suecica) tide algae, by heterogeneous photocatalysis was carried out using pyrochlore-type semiconductors. The semiconductor, Bi2InTaO7 , was prepared by the solgel method and a solid state reaction. The XRD patterns evidence formation of the pyrochlore phase in the sol-gel materials calcined at low temperatures (600-800 oC). Nanostructured sol-gel materials were observed by SEM. The sol-gel preparation allowed the formation of the pyrochlore-type compound with specific surface areas (7-13 m2g−1) higher than the solid obtained by solid state preparation (< 5 m2g−1). Band gap (Eg) values between 2.1-2.7 eV determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy were obtained. Bi2InTaO7 photocatalysts prepared by the sol-gel method were able to eliminate Tetraselmis suecica and Amphidium carterae algae totally after 50 minutes of UV-irradiation, whereas Bi2InTaO7 by solid state preparation needed more than 1 h.

Keywords: Pyrochlore-type structure, Photocatalysis, Marine plankton removal, Sol-gel photocatalyst,Bi2InTaO7.

This Article

  • 2011; 12(1): 1-4

    Published on Feb 28, 2011