Photocatalytic Toluene Oxidation Efficiency

Example 3

The photocatalytic oxidation of toluene to CO₂ and H₂O was performed using the same setup as Example except the quartz tube used had been worn due to attrition by 300 mg of catalyst for 6 weeks at a flow of 1000 sccm. The toluene conversion of the worn tube and a new quartz tube were compared. The transmission of the worn tube was 2× lower than the new tube when measured normal to an LED source with the reactor tube in between. The concentration of toluene was 3 ppm for Example 3. Using the same lights source and reactor geometries, the concentration of toluene decreased to ˜100 ppb for reactor tubes despite the difference in light transmission indicating attrition did not adversely affect performance.