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Author: search.filters.author.Thambiliyagodage, CHas files: Yes

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    PublicationOpen Access
    Efficient photocatalysis of carbon coupled TiO2 to degrade pollutants in wastewater – A review
    (Elsevier, 2022-08-27) Thambiliyagodage, C
    Water pollution caused by human activities is a monumental problem that the world is facing today. The use of polluted water for domestic, industrial, and agricultural applications creates severe hazardous issues. Therefore, decontamination of polluted water is greatly important. The advanced oxidation process is preferred to purify contaminated water as the pollutants are completely degraded to harmless products. TiO2 is the most widely researched photocatalyst due to its chemical stability, low cost and eco-friendliness. However, the use of TiO2 is limited as it is only sensitive to UV range due to its high band gap (3.0 eV for rutile) and the possible electron-hole pair recombination. TiO2 has been coupled with carbon-based materials to enhance photocatalytic activity by enhancing charge separation and visible light absorption. This review summarizes the recent use of TiO2 coupled to activated carbon, carbon nanotubes, graphene derivatives, and g-C3N4 to degrade different pollutants found in water including dyes, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, phenols and heavy metals. The advantages and disadvantages of using each carbon-based material are discussed. Further, the challenges and opportunities associated with all the materials are presented. Finally, recommendations and possible future outlooks are briefed in this review.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Fabrication of TiO2 Spheres and a Visible Light Active α‑Fe2O3/ TiO2‑Rutile/TiO2‑Anatase Heterogeneous Photocatalyst from Natural Ilmenite
    (researchgate.net, 2022-07-26) Usgodaarachchi, L; Thambiliyagodage, C; Wijesekera, R; Vigneswaran, S; Kandanapitiye, M
    High-purity (98.8%, TiO2) rutile nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using ilmenite sand as the initial titanium source. This novel synthesis method was cost-effective and straightforward due to the absence of the traditional gravity, magnetic, electrostatic separation, ball milling, and smelting processes. Synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles were 99% pure. Also, highly corrosive environmentally hazardous acid leachate generated during the leaching process of ilmenite sand was effectively converted into a highly efficient visible light active photocatalyst. The prepared photocatalyst system consists of anatase-TiO2/rutile-TiO2/Fe2O3 (TF-800), rutile-TiO2/Fe2TiO5 (TFTO-800), and anatase-TiO2/Fe3O4 (TF-450) nanocomposites, respectively. The pseudo-second-order adsorption rate of the TF-800 ternary nanocomposite was 0.126 g mg–1 min–1 in dark conditions, and a 0.044 min–1 visible light initial photodegradation rate was exhibited. The TFTO-800 binary nanocomposite adsorbed methylene blue (MB) following pseudo-second-order adsorption (0.224 g mg–1 min–1) in the dark, and the rate constant for photodegradation of MB in visible light was 0.006 min–1. The prepared TF-450 nanocomposite did not display excellent adsorptive and photocatalytic performances throughout the experiment period. The synthesized TF-800 and TFTO-800 were able to degrade 93.1 and 49.8% of a 100 mL, 10 ppm MB dye solution within 180 min, respectively.