Preparation and catalytic property study of a novel kind of suspended photocatalyst of TiO2-activated carbon immobilized on silicone rubber film

A new suspended photocatalyst, TiO2 and activated carbon (AC) particles immobilized on silicone rubber (SR) film, was prepared using a novel method and its photocatalytic activity on the photodegradation of acridine dye and phenol in aqueous solution was tested. Silicone rubber film used as the support has many advantages: it is transparent to light, easily to be recycled and may be suspended in the aqueous solution to increase the collision possibility of pollutants with TiO2 photocatalysts. The activated carbon used as adsorbent helps to accelerate the degradation of organic substrates. This immobilized hybrid catalyst 90TAS (90 wt% TiO2–10 wt% AC/SR) is efficient in photoinduced mineralization of organic substrates at dilute concentrations and can be recycled easily.