Photocatalytic degradation of gaseous benzene with H3PW12O40/TiO2/palygorskite composite catalyst

H3pw12o40/tio2/palygorskite composite photocatalysts were prepared by the sol–gel method and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (sem),x-ray diffraction (xrd),fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ft-ir) and n2 adsorption–desorption measurement. these results indicated that the self-made composite photocatalysts had excellent catalytic performance of degradation of gaseous benzene. in the case of the benzene concentration at 100 mg/m3,over the composite catalysts h3pw12o40/tio2/palygorskite with mass ratio of 1:5:5 calcined at 350 °c,reached 96.3% after 210 min uv irradiation. the gaseous benzene photo-catalytic degradation was mainly caused by strong oxidizing property of hpw,the tio2 electron–holes and oxygen synergy effect. the degradation followed pseudo-first-order reaction process and the main products were co2 and h2o. © 2015 the authors