Room Temperature Synthesis of V-Doped TiO(2) and Its Photocatalytic Activity in the Removal of Caffeine under UV Irradiation

In this work, the influence of simple acids in the room temperature sol-gel synthesis of TiO(2) was investigated and the efficiency of prepared photocatalysts was evaluated in the removal of caffeine. To improve the photoactivity of TiO(2), vanadium-doped TiO(2) (VTiO(2)) samples were obtained starting from different amount of vanadyl sulphate as a dopant source. The samples were centrifuged, washed and finally dried at room temperature, and no calcination step was carried out. The prepared photocatalysts were characterized by different techniques (X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), specific surface area (SSA), ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-vis DRS) and Raman). VTiO(2) photocatalysts were tested in the photocatalytic removal of aqueous solutions containing caffeine. The photocatalytic tests were carried out in a recirculating batch cylindrical photoreactor irradiated by a UV LEDs strip (nominal power of 12 W and wavelength emission peak at about 365 nm) surrounding the external surface of the reactor. The optimized VTiO(2) photocatalyst was able to reach a caffeine degradation of about 96% after 360 min of UV light irradiation with a total organic carbon (TOC) removal of 72%.