• Milovac, Dajana
• Kovacic, Marin
• Weigand, Ivna
• Ivankovic, Marica
• Ivankovic, Hrvoje

Abstract

<jats:p>Highly porous hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, HAp) catalyst support wasprepared through hydrothermal transformation of aragonitic cuttlefish bone(Sepia Officinalis, L., Adriatic Sea) at 200?C, preserving the natural wellinterconnected porous structure. To deposit the TiO2 catalyst on the porewalls of the HAp support two methods were used: i) vacuum impregnation ofthe support with the suspension of a commercial TiO2 nanopowder inisopropanol and ii) in situ synthesis of TiO2 on the support by sol-geltechnique. XRD analysis and FTIR spectroscopy were used to determine thephase composition of the material. The morphology and microstructure of thecomposite samples were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thepresence of TiO2 particles on the HAp surface was determined by SEM/EDXanalysis. To determine the specific surface area and pore size,Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method was used. The results of the BET methodshowed the increased specific surface area and pore size reduction afterimpregnation of TiO2 into the HAp carrier. The photocatalytic activity ofHAp/TiO2 samples was studied in a batch reactor with an annular UV-A lampusing salicylic acid as a model water pollutant. The results indicated thesuitability of prepared HAp supported TiO2 catalysts for photocatalyticapplications.</jats:p>

Topics

• porous
• microstructure
• pore
• surface
• scanning electron microscopy
• x-ray diffraction
• spectroscopy