Study of the Effect of Titanium Dioxide Hydrosol on the Photocatalytic and Mechanical Properties of Paper Sheets.

Different amounts of a stable aqueous TiO hydrosol were used to fabricate paper sheets having photocatalytic activity. The TiO hydrosol was prepared in aqueous medium using titanium butoxide as precursor and acetic acid as catalyst for the hydrolysis of titanium butoxide. An aging process at room temperature and atmospheric pressure was finally applied to obtain crystalline anatase TiO hydrosol. The effects of different TiO hydrosol loadings on the mechanical strength and barrier properties of modified paper sheets were investigated in detail. The photocatalytic behavior of TiO-modified paper sheets was investigated as well using methylene blue (MB) as target pollutant.