TiO2 supported over porous silica photocatalysts for pesticide degradation using solar light: Part 2. Silica prepared using acrylic acid emulsion.

An acrylic acid emulsion mixture is used for synthesis of novel porous silica (E-Si) material. The photocatalytic activity of TiO2 under solar light irradiation for isoproturon (herbicide) degradation is drastically increased when dispersed over E-Si support using solid state dispersion (SSD) technique. The composite material is characterized by XRD, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, UV-vis DRS, SEM and TEM measurements. The photocatalytic activities of the composite catalysts are evaluated for different parameters. The 5 wt% TiO2/E-Si is found to be highly active for isoproturon degradation.