Effects of mordenite support on photodegradation of gaseous organic compounds over TiO2 photocatalyst

Effects of mordenite as a support material for TiO2 on photodegradation rat es of gaseous propionaldehyde, acetone, and propane were investigated using TiO2 (50 wt%)-loaded mordenite as a photocatalyst in reference to unsuppor ted TiO2. The supported photocatalyst allowed adsorption of all the substra tes several times greater than the unsupported photocatalyst, resulting in higher photooxidation rates for them. Detailed analysis suggests that the e nhancement of the decomposition rate caused by the use of mordenite support is more remarkable for lower amounts of adsorption of the substrates on th e support. The concentration of oxygen was found to have little influence o n the photodegradation rates, suggesting that the rate of degradation of th e organic substrates was not decided by photogenerated electron transfer pr ocesses but by the consumption of photogenerated holes by adsorbed organic substrates.