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Photocatalysis of aqueous PFOA by common catalysts of In2O3, Ga2O3, TiO2, CeO2 and CdS: influence factors and mechanistic insights

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Abstract

Gallium oxide (Ga2O3), titanium dioxide (TiO2), cerium dioxide (CeO2), indium oxide (In2O3) and cadmium sulfide (CdS) were commonly used under UV light as photocatalysis system for the pollutants’ degradation. In this study, these five catalysts were applied for the photodegradation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a well-known perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS). As a result, the PFOA photodegradation performance was sequenced as: Ga2O3 > TiO2 > CeO2 > In2O3 > CdS. To further explain the photocatalysis mechanism, the effects of initial pH, photon energy and band gap were evaluated. The initial pH of 3 ± 0.2 hinders the catalytic reaction of CdS, resulting in low degradation of PFOA, while it has no significant effect on Ga2O3, TiO2, CeO2 and In2O3. In addition, quantum yield was sequenced as TiO2 > CeO2 > Ga2O3 > In2O3, which may not be the main factor determining the degradation effect. Notably, the band gap energy from large to narrow was as: Ga2O3 > TiO2 > CeO2 > In2O3 > CdS, which exactly matched their degradation performance.

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Acknowledgements

We would like thank the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for the financial support (Grant No. 201606890028).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China

    Caixia Fu

  2. School of Agricultural and Biological Technology, Wenzhou Vocational College of Science & Technology, Zhejiang, 325006, China

    Xiuru Xu

  3. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Caixia Fu, Chunmiao Zheng & Xinjie Liu

  4. School of Public Health and Emergency Management, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Wenhui Qiu

  5. Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, PO Box 15200, 00076, Espoo, Finland

    Dandan Zhao

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  1. Caixia Fu
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  4. Xinjie Liu
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Contributions

CF performed the photocatalysis experiment and was responsible for writing the manuscript. BX and CZ designed the study and was leading in the writing of the manuscript. WQ and DZ performed all statistical analysis. All authors contributed to and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiuru Xu or Wenhui Qiu.

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This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2021YFA1202500), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42077223), Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee (JCYJ20190809164201686), State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface Water-Groundwater Pollution Control, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil and Groundwater Pollution Control (No. 2017B030301012), and Leading Talents of Guangdong Province Program (Chunmiao Zheng).

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Fu, C., Xu, X., Zheng, C. et al. Photocatalysis of aqueous PFOA by common catalysts of In2O3, Ga2O3, TiO2, CeO2 and CdS: influence factors and mechanistic insights. Environ Geochem Health 44, 2943–2953 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01127-2

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