Abstract
Non-thermal plasma (NTP) is gaining attention as a powerful tool to induce various reactions. The combination of NTP with catalysts has been successfully used to degrade volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for pollution control. In this study, a series of TiO2-C/5A catalysts, synthesized by carbon dots (C-dots) that decorate TiO2 by sol-gel and wetness impregnation methods, were incorporated with a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor in a single-stage structure to degrade toluene at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. A proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometer and a CO2 analyzer were used to monitor the concentration variations of organic by-products and CO2 online. The effects of input power, mass ratio of C-dots/TiO2 (TiO2/5A (0 wt%), TiO2-C1/5A (2.5 wt%), TiO2-C2/5A (5 wt%), TiO2-C3/5A (10 wt%)), gas flow rate, initial concentration of toluene on the toluene degradation efficiency, and CO2 selectivity were studied. The plasma-catalyst hybrid system could effectively improve the energy efficiency and reaction selectivity, attaining a maximum toluene degradation efficiency of 99.6% and CO2 selectivity of 83.0% compared to 79.5% and 37.5%, respectively, using the conventional plasma alone. Moreover, the generation of organic by-products also declined dramatically, averaging only half as much in plasma alone. The results also indicated that the appropriate amount of C-dot doping could greatly improve the catalyst efficiency in the hybrid plasma system. This is because the interaction between C-dots and TiO2 favors the formation of photoelectron holes and reduces the energy band gap and the recombination rate of photogenerated electron holes, which facilitates the generation of more active species on the catalyst surface, thereby leading to a more effective degradation reaction. These observations will provide guidance for the interaction studies between NTP and catalysts, not only for the exploration of new chemical mechanisms of aromatic compounds, but also for the screening of favorable materials for the desired reactions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Not applicable.
References
An HTQ, Huu TP, Le Van T, Cormier JM, Khacef A (2011) Application of atmospheric non thermal plasma-catalysis hybrid system for air pollution control: toluene removal. Catal Today 176:474–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cattod.2010.10.005
Assadi AA, Loganathan S, Phuong Nguyen T, Ghaida SG-A, Bouzaza A, Anh Nguyen T, Wolbert D (2018) Pilot scale degradation of mono and multi volatile organic compounds by surface discharge plasma/TiO2 reactor: investigation of competition and synergism. J Hazard Mater 357:305–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.06.007
Barman MK, Patra A (2018) Current status and prospects on chemical structure driven photoluminescence behaviour of carbon dots. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C-Photochemistry Reviews 37:1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotochemrev.2018.08.001
Cao L, Wang X, Meziani MJ, Lu F, Wang H, Luo PG, Lin Y, Harruff BA, Veca LM, Murray D, Xie S-Y, Sun Y-P (2007) Carbon dots for multiphoton bioimaging. J Am Chem Soc 129:11318-+. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja073527l
Chen P, Wang F, Chen Z-F, Zhang Q, Su Y, Shen L, Yao K, Liu Y, Cai Z, Lv W, Liu G (2017) Study on the photocatalytic mechanism and detoxicity of gemfibrozil by a sunlight-driven TiO2/carbon dots photocatalyst: the significant roles of reactive oxygen species. Applied Catalysis B-Environmental 204:250–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2016.11.040
Chen X, Sun H, Zhang J, Guo Y, Kuo D-H (2019) Cationic S-doped TiO2/SiO2 visible-light photocatalyst synthesized by co-hydrolysis method and its application for organic degradation. J Mol Liq 273:50–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2018.10.021
Esteves da Silva JCG, Goncalves HMR (2011) Analytical and bioanalytical applications of carbon dots. Trac-Trends in Analytical Chemistry 30:1327–1336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2011.04.009
Feizpoor S, Habibi-Yangjeh A, Ahadzadeh I, Yubuta K (2019) Oxygen-rich TiO2 decorated with C-Dots: highly efficient visible-light-responsive photocatalysts in degradations of different contaminants. Adv Powder Technol 30:1183–1196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apt.2019.03.014
Feng X, Liu H, He C, Shen Z, Wang T (2018) Synergistic effects and mechanism of a non-thermal plasma catalysis system in volatile organic compound removal: a review. Catalysis Science & Technology 8:936–954. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7cy01934c
Fernando KAS, Sahu S, Liu Y, Lewis WK, Guliants EA, Jafariyan A, Wang P, Bunker CE, Sun Y-P (2015) Carbon quantum dots and applications in photocatalytic energy conversion. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 7:8363–8376. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5b00448
Fujimoto TM, Ponczek M, Rochetto UL, Landers R, Tomaz E (2017) Photocatalytic oxidation of selected gas-phase VOCs using UV light, TiO2, and TiO2/Pd. Environ Sci Pollut R 24:6390–6396. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6494-7
Ghosh M, Lohrasbi M, Chuang SSC, Jana SC (2016) Mesoporous titanium dioxide nanofibers with a significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity. Chemcatchem 8:2525–2535. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.201600387
Guo T, Li XS, Li JQ, Peng Z, Xu L, Dong JG, Cheng P, Zhou Z (2018a) On-line quantification and human health risk assessment of organic by-products from the removal of toluene in air using non-thermal plasma. Chemosphere 194:139–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.11.173
Guo T, Peng Z, Li X, Zhu H, Xu L, Dong J, Feng J, Cheng P, Zhou Z (2018b) Application of proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry for the assessment of toluene removal in a nonthermal plasma reactor. J Mass Spectrom 53:1126–1134. https://doi.org/10.1002/jms.4288
Han MC, Dong JG, Peng Z, Xu L, Cheng P, Zhou Z (2018) Proton transfer reaction time of flight mass spectrometry for detection of trace volatile organic compounds in breath. Chin J Anal Chem 46:1109–1115. https://doi.org/10.11895/j.issn.0253.3820.171532
Han Y, Li M, Lai J, Li W, Liu Y, Yin L, Yang L, Xue X, Vajtai R, Ajayan PM, Wang L (2019) Rational design of oxygen-enriched carbon dots with efficient room-temperature phosphorescent properties and high-tech security protection application. ACS Sustain Chem Eng 7:19918–19924. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b05415
He C, Cheng J, Zhang X, Douthwaite M, Pattisson S, Hao Z (2019) Recent advances in the catalytic oxidation of volatile organic compounds: a review based on pollutant sorts and sources. Chem Rev 119:4471–4568. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.8b00408
Hossain MM, Mok YS, Nguyen DB, Kim S-J, Kim YJ, Lee JH, Heo I (2021) Nonthermal plasma in practical-scale honeycomb catalysts for the removal of toluene. J Hazard Mater:40410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123958
Huang SP, Li WS, Han P, Zhou X, Cheng JW, Wen HY, Xue WM (2019) Carbon quantum dots: synthesis, properties, and sensing applications as a potential clinical analytical method. Anal Methods 11:2240–2258. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ay00068b
Jablonska M, Krol A, Kukulska-Zajac E, Tarach K, Girman V, Chmielarz L, Gora-Marek K (2015) Zeolites Y modified with palladium as effective catalysts for low-temperature methanol incineration. Applied Catalysis B-Environmental 166:353–365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2014.11.047
Jiang N, Lu N, Shang K, Li J, Wu Y (2013) Effects of electrode geometry on the performance of dielectric barrier/packed-bed discharge plasmas in benzene degradation. J Hazard Mater 262:387–393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2013.08.072
Jiang N, Zhao Y, Qiu C, Shang K, Lu N, Li J, Wu Y, Zhang Y (2019) Enhanced catalytic performance of CoOx-CeO2 for synergetic degradation of toluene in multistage sliding plasma system through response surface methodology (RSM). Applied Catalysis B-Environmental:25910. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2019.118061
Kamal MS, Razzak SA, Hossain MM (2016) Catalytic oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) - a review. Atmos Environ 140:117–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.05.031
Kim HH, Ogata A, Futamura S (2008) Oxygen partial pressure-dependent behavior of various catalysts for the total oxidation of VOCs using cycled system of adsorption and oxygen plasma. Applied Catalysis B-Environmental 79:356–367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2007.10.038
Lee B, Kim D-W, Park D-W (2019) Dielectric barrier discharge reactor with the segmented electrodes for decomposition of toluene adsorbed on bare-zeolite. Chem Eng J 357:188–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.104
Li LS, Yan X (2010) Colloidal graphene quantum dots. J Phys Chem Lett 1:2572–2576. https://doi.org/10.1021/jz100862f
Li HT, Kang ZH, Liu Y, Lee ST (2012) Carbon nanodots: synthesis, properties and applications. J Mater Chem 22:24230–24253. https://doi.org/10.1039/c2jm34690g
Li S, Dang X, Yu X, Abbas G, Zhang Q, Cao L (2020a) The application of dielectric barrier discharge non -thermal plasma in VOCs abatement: a review. Chem Eng J:38810. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2020.124275
Li XS, Li M, Peng Z, Zheng KW, Xu L, Dong JG, Ren GF, Cheng P (2020b) Reaction kinetic study of nonthermal plasma continuous degradation of acetone in a closed-loop reactor. Chemosphere 249:10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126215
Macwan DP, Dave PN, Chaturvedi S (2011) A review on nano-TiO2 sol-gel type syntheses and its applications. J Mater Sci 46:3669–3686. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-011-5378-y
Mamaghani AH, Haghighat F, Lee C-S (2017) Photocatalytic oxidation technology for indoor environment air purification: the state-of-the-art. Applied Catalysis B-Environmental 203:247–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2016.10.037
Nalid NR, Majid A, Tahir MB, Niaz NA, Khalid S (2017) Carbonaceous-TiO2 nanomaterials for photocatalytic degradation of pollutants: a review. Ceram Int 43:14552–14571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2017.08.143
Nie L, Duan B, Lu A, Zhang L (2019) Pd/TiO2 @ carbon microspheres derived from chitin for highly efficient photocatalytic degradation of volatile organic compounds. ACS Sustain Chem Eng 7:1658–1666. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b05426
Nifuku M, Horvath M, Bodnar J, Zhang GY, Tanaka T, Kiss E, Woynarovich G, Katoh H (1997) A study on the decomposition of volatile organic compounds by pulse corona. J Electrost 40-1:687–692. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3886(97)00116-2
Pan D, Jiao J, Li Z, Guo Y, Feng C, Liu Y, Wang L, Wu M (2015) Efficient separation of electron-hole pairs in graphene quantum dots by TiO2 heterojunctions for dye degradation. ACS Sustain Chem Eng 3:2405–2413. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.5b00771
Sabri M, Habibi-Yangjeh A, Vadivel S (2019) Activation of persulfate ions by TiO2/carbon dots nanocomposite under visible light for photocatalytic degradations of organic contaminants. Journal of Materials Science-Materials in Electronics 30:12510–12522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-01611-7
Shayegan Z, Lee C-S, Haghighat F (2018) TiO2 photocatalyst for removal of volatile organic compounds in gas phase - a review. Chem Eng J 334:2408–2439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2017.09.153
Stasiulaitiene I, Martuzevicius D, Abromaitis V, Tichonovas M, Baltrusaitis J, Brandenburg R, Pawelec A, Schwock A (2016) Comparative life cycle assessment of plasma-based and traditional exhaust gas treatment technologies. J Clean Prod 112:1804–1812. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.01.062
Syafei D, Sugiarti S, Darmawan N, Khotib M (2017) Synthesis of TiO2/carbon nanoparticle (C-dot) composites as active catalysts for photodegradation of persistent organic pollutant. Indian J Chem 17:37–42. https://doi.org/10.22146/ijc.23615
Tang S, Yuan D, Rao Y, Li M, Shi G, Gu J, Zhang T (2019) Percarbonate promoted antibiotic decomposition in dielectric barrier discharge plasma. J Hazard Mater 366:669–676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.12.056
Vandenbroucke AM, Morent R, De Geyter N, Leys C (2011) Non-thermal plasmas for non-catalytic and catalytic VOC abatement. J Hazard Mater 195:30–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2011.08.060
Verbruggen SW (2015) TiO2 photocatalysis for the degradation of pollutants in gas phase: from morphological design to plasmonic enhancement. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C-Photochemistry Reviews 24:64–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotochemrev.2015.07.001
Wang L, Wang Y, Xu T, Liao H, Yao C, Liu Y, Li Z, Chen Z, Pan D, Sun L, Wu M (2014) Gram-scale synthesis of single-crystalline graphene quantum dots with superior optical properties. Nat Commun 510. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6357
Wang B, Chi C, Xu M, Wang C, Meng D (2017) Plasma-catalytic removal of toluene over CeO2-MnOx catalysts in an atmosphere dielectric barrier discharge. Chem Eng J 322:679–692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2017.03.153
Wang B, Xu X, Xu W, Wang N, Xiao H, Sun Y, Huang H, Yu L, Fu M, Wu J, Chen L, Ye D (2018a) The mechanism of non-thermal plasma catalysis on volatile organic compounds removal. Catal Surv Jpn 22:73–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10563-018-9241-x
Wang T, Cao Y, Qu G, Sun Q, Xia T, Guo X, Jia H, Zhu L (2018b) Novel Cu(II)-EDTA Decomplexation by discharge plasma oxidation and coupled Cu removal by alkaline precipitation: underneath mechanisms. Environ Sci Technol 52:7884–7891. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b02039
Whitehead JC (2016) Plasma-catalysis: the known knowns, the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns. J Phys D-Appl Phys 49:24. https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/49/24/243001
Xu XY, Ray R, Gu YL, Ploehn HJ, Gearheart L, Raker K, Scrivens WA (2004) Electrophoretic analysis and purification of fluorescent single-walled carbon nanotube fragments. J Am Chem Soc 126:12736–12737. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja040082h
Yan D, Liu Y, C-y L, Z-y Z, S-d N (2016) Multi-component in situ and in-step formation of visible-light response C-dots composite TiO2 mesocrystals. RSC Adv 6:14306–14313. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ra24475g
Yao X, Zhang J, Liang X, Long C (2019) Niobium doping enhanced catalytic performance of Mn/MCM-41 for toluene degradation in the NTP-catalysis system. Chemosphere 230:479–487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.05.075
Zadi T, Assadi AA, Nasrallah N, Bouallouche R, Phuong Nguyen T, Bouzaza A, Azizi MM, Maachi R, Wolbert D (2018) Treatment of hospital indoor air by a hybrid system of combined plasma with photocatalysis: case of trichloromethane. Chem Eng J 349:276–286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2018.05.073
Zhang X, Gao B, Creamer AE, Cao C, Li Y (2017) Adsorption of VOCs onto engineered carbon materials: a review. J Hazard Mater 338:102–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.05.013
Zhou T, Chen S, Li L, Wang J, Zhang Y, Li J, Bai J, Xia L, Xu Q, Rahim M, Zhou B (2020) Carbon quantum dots modified anatase/rutile TiO2 photoanode with dramatically enhanced photoelectrochemical performance. Applied Catalysis B-Environmental 269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.118776
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41877374) and China Instrumentation Program (No. 2017YFF0106000).
Funding
Financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41877374) and China Instrumentation Program (No. 2017YFF0106000).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Jixing Liu: investigation, data curation, writing—original draft; Yanyan Ji: investigation, data curation, writing—original draft; Shuping Zhu: resources, validation; Teng Guo: visualization, software; Li Xu: visualization, methodology; Junguo Dong: data curation; Ping Cheng: conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing—reviewing and editing.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
Not applicable.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Ricardo A. Torres-Palma
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, ., Ji, Y., Zhu, S. et al. C-dot doping for enhanced catalytic performance of TiO2/5A for toluene degradation in non-thermal plasma-catalyst system. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 2480–2492 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15840-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15840-z