Photocatalytic Activity of Ti-SBA-15/C3N4 for Degradation of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid in Water under Visible Light.

In the present study, the photocatalytic activity of Ti-SBA-15/CN catalysts was investigated to degrade 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) herbicides in water under visible light irradiation. The catalysts were synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method and characterized by various analytical techniques, including SAXS, N adsorption-desorption isotherms, Zeta potential, PL, FT-IR, XRF, TGA, and UV-DRS. Our study indicated that the 2.5Ti-SBA-15/CN had higher efficiency in the degradation of 2,4-D than Ti-SBA-15 and CN. The decomposition of 2,4-D reached 60% under 180 minutes of visible light irradiation at room temperature on 2.5Ti-SBA-15/CN. Moreover, the degradation of 2,4-D on Ti-SBA-15/CN was pseudo-first-order kinetics with the highest rate constant (0.00484 min), which was much higher than that obtained for other photocatalysts reported recently. Furthermore, the catalyst can be reused at least two times for photodegradation of 2,4-D solution under visible light irradiation within a slight decrease in catalytic activity.