Notice of RetractionSolar Photodegradation of P-Nitrophenol in Water Catalyzed by TiO2/MWCNTs Composite Catalyst

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

The presenting author of this paper has the option to appeal this decision by contacting TPII@ieee.org.

Solar photodegradation of p-nitrophenol in aqueous solution by TiO₂/MWCNTs composite particles was investigated. The prepared TiO₂/MWCNTs composite photocatalyst was characterized by XRD, FT-IR and UV-vis absorption spectra techniques. The effects of pH, irradiation time, catalyst loading, initial substrate con centration and MWCNTs content were systematically investigated as operational parameters. The effects of these parameters on the photodegradation efficiency were found to be significant. Experiment results revealed that the optimal conditions were a p-nitrophenol concentration of 55.6 mg/L at pH 5.0 with catalyst loading of 8.0 g/L under solar irradiation for the illumination of 210 min. The highest efficiency on photodegradation of p-nitrophenol can be achieved with an optimal MWCNTs/TiO₂ mass ratio of 0.12%. Possible decomposing mechanisms were also discussed. The repeatability of photocatalytic activity was also tested. The photocatalyst was used for eight cycles with photodegradation efficiency still higher than 96%. The results of the study showed the feasible and potential use of TiO₂/MWCNTs composite in degradation of toxic organic pollutants.