Photocatalytic degradation of textile dye X-3B using TiW11Ti/SiO2 hybrid materials

Various photocatalysts composed of undecatungstotitanotitanic heteropoly acid (H4[Ti(H2O)TiW11O39]·7H2O) loaded on silica (TiW11Ti/SiO2) were prepared by sol-gel method. The TiW11Ti/SiO2 hybrid materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and Diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). The photocatalytic performance was investigated by photocatalytic degradation of brilliant dye X-3B under ultraviolet light irradiation. The TiW11Ti/SiO2 hybrid showed higher photocatalytic activity than pure TiW11Ti and TiW11Ti + SiO2 (TiW11Ti mixed simply with SiO2). Among three different loading weights of TiW11Ti for the hybrids, the degradation efficiencies of dye X-3B displayed the following order: 45 wt% > 30 wt% > 60 wt%.