Ethanol vapor photocatalytic oxidation with uranyl modified titania under visible light: Comparison with silica and alumina

Gas-phase photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) of ethanol vapor in a batch reactor using UO2(NO3)2-modified titania, alumina and silica as photocatalysts was studied. The uranyl nitrate content was varied from 0.2 to 10 wt.%. Special optical glass filters were placed between the light source and reactor to cutoff the UV light. Photooxidation experiments under the visible light irradiation demonstrated that UO2(NO3)2 loading on TiO2 improves its activity in the ethanol photooxidation and CO2 formation. The influence of support and uranyl nitrate content on the ethanol vapor PCO was investigated. The rate of ethanol oxidation increased with the increase of uranyl content. Alumina and silica based photocatalysts demonstrated almost the same photoactivity whereas the titania based photocatalyst had at least a five times higher rate of the acetaldehyde accumulation. All the synthesized photocatalysts oxidize ethanol even under light with wavelength higher than 470 nm.