Novel TiO2 thin films/glass fiber photocatalytic reactors in the removal of bioaerosols
✍ Scribed by Ching-Hsing Lin; Jyh-Wei Lee; Chen-Yu Chang; Yu-Jie Chang; Yao-Chuan Lee; Mei-Yin Hwa
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2010
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 678 KB
- Volume
- 205
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0257-8972
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✦ Synopsis
The photocatalytic disinfection of aerosolized Escherichia coli, a pathogenic microorganism was investigated. The air disinfection system is a novel TiO 2 thin films/glass reactor filter and ultraviolet (UV) radiation air purification system, operating at a flow rate of 20 L/min. A special glass fiber reactor design allowed the UV lamp to be located in the center of the reactor. The photocatalyst reactor was then filled with TiO 2 coated glass fiber substrates to examine the photocatalytic efficiency of the TiO 2 filled reactor against aerosolized E. coli in cell concentrations of 10 5 CFU/mL. A slow sol-gel technique hydrolysis was used in this study to acquire fine and uniform TiO 2 nanoparticles of 10-30 nm. The TiO 2 thin films were obtained on glass fiber substrates by dipping method followed by thermal treatment. In an attempt to understand the structure and the morphology of TiO 2 sol-gel thin films, analyses by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were employed. The SEM images showed that uniform anatase TiO 2 thin films were coated on fiber surfaces. A neublizer was applied to yield E. coli bioaerosol at a controlled humidity of 72%. Disinfection of E. coli under 254 and 365 nm light illumination was conducted to evaluate the photocatalytic ability of the TiO 2 thin films. The nano-TiO 2 /glass fibers gel catalyst prepared in the laboratory showed good photocatalytic performance with the high degradation efficiency above 95% at both wavelengths. With the UV illumination switched off, the degradation efficiency dropped to below 60%. The improvement of the photocatalytic activity was ascribed to the fibers-based reactor with a screen mechanism which provided a huge surface area of TiO 2 thin films. These results will be useful and assist engineers to design photocatalyst reactors for the industrial applications of bioaerosol removal.
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