Study of TiO/Ti4O photo-anodes inserted in an activated carbon packed bed cathode: Towards the development of 3D-type photo-electro-Fenton reactors for water treatment.

In this work, commercially available Polymethyl-meta-acrylate (PMMA) spectroscopy cells were modified on the external walls with films of TiO, TiO or TiO/TiO mixtures. Film characterization was carried out using SEM and UV-vis spectroscopy. The results of photocatalytic (PC), electro-oxidation (EO), and photoelectrochemical (PEC) experiments on the decolorization of a methyl orange (MO) model dye solution showed that while anatase provides better photocatalytic properties and the partially reduced TiO larger electronic conductivity, the TiO/TiO composite film behaves as a semiconductor substrate that combines the advantages of both materials (for PEC experiments for instance, decolorization values for the model dye solution using TiO, TiO and a TiO/TiO mixed film, corresponded to 35%, 46% and 53%, respectively).