Photocatalytic Degradation of 4-Bromodiphenyl Ether Using TiO2/MWCNTs Composites.

Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) are widely spread in the environment which posing elevated potential risks to the whole ecosystem, and has drawn increasing world's attention. In the present study, well dispersed TiO2/MWCNTs composites were synthesized by electron-beam irradiation method, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) techniques were used to characterize the composites. The degradation of persistent organic pollutants was demonstrated via UV illumination using 4-bromodiphenyl ether (BDE-3) as a target compound, which exhibited ~90% photo catalytic degradation efficiency after the duration of 60 min. We also studied the effects of precursor titanium fluoride (TiF4) concentration and electron-beam irradiation dose on photo catalytic degradation efficiency of BDE-3, which were important factors in synthesis of the composites. The photo catalytic degradation of BDE-3 in acetone/water (1:1, v/v) solution followed the first-order reaction kinetics model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]