Monitoring the photocatalytic oxidation of water-based organic pollutants by FT-IR spectroscopy in real-time
Lynch, Eman Alghamdi ; Jessica Mabin ; Chris Hodges ; Simon J. Freakley ; Stephen A. . 2016
Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants is a promising technology for water treatment. We have designed a germanium attenuated total internal reflection flow cell for continuous real-time mid-infrared spectroscopy of liquids. We have used our flow cell to follow the photocatalytic degradation of the test pollutant methylene blue in water by TiO2 activated by ultraviolet light. Our results shed light on the photocatalytic reaction pathway.