Highly-Efficient and Visible Light Photocatalytical Degradation of Organic Pollutants Using TiO 2 -Loaded on Low-Cost Biomass Husk.

A composite composing of TiO 2 nanoparticles load on biomass rice husk (RH) is developed by directly growing TiO 2 nanoparticles on RH. The in-situ growth of the nanocrystals on RH is achieved by a low-cost and one-step homogeneous precipitation. Rapid hydrolysis proceeds at 90 °C by using ammonium fluotitanate and urea to facilitate the selective growth of TiO 2 . The method provides an easy access to the TiO 2 -RH composite with a strong interaction between TiO 2 nanoparticles and the underlying RH. The structure and composition of TiO 2 -RH are characterized by using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. TiO 2 nanoparticles-RH exhibits a good photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange. The results show that 92% of methyl orange (20 mg L -1 ) can be degraded within three hours in visible light. The catalytic activity of the composite is not reduced after 6 cycles, and it still reaches 81% after 6 cycles. The enhanced performance is ascribed to the suitable particle size the good dispersibility. It is expected that the high photocatalytical performance and the cost-effective composite presented here will inspire the development of other high-performance photocatalysts.