Michael J. Nash, Anne Marie Shough, Doug Doren, and Raul Lobo. Univesity of Delaware, Newak, DE
We have investigated ETS-10 and vanadium-incorporated ETS-10 as photocatalysts for the reduction of volatile organic components (VOCs) since their unique structure may help elucidate the material and surface properties needed to overcome some of the disadvantages of traditional semiconductors like anatase. ETS-10 is a microporous titanosilicate composed of octahedral chains of TiO6 embedded in a tetrahedral SiO4 framework. These chains stack perpendicular to each other to form a 7.5 Å, three-dimensional channel structure with an ideal stoichiometry of (Na, K)2TiSi5O13. Vanadium has been shown to substitute for the titanium along the chain forming (V/(V+Ti))ETVS-10s and can completely replace titanium forming an analogous structure to ETS-10, called AM-6. This incorporation of vanadium has also shown visible photocatalytic activity that has been explained experimentally and theoretically. These chains of TiO2 behave as 1D semi-conducting wires which are insulated by the SiO2 framework. Therefore chain termination sites on the surface of the crystal or at defects along the chain play a crucial role in the electron-hole transfer from the chain to adsorbed organic molecules. Previous work has shown that ion exchange leads to an increase in chain termination for ETS-10 samples along with different photocatalytic properties. In this research we will determine the effects of acid site formation through NH4 ion exchange in an attempt to maximize the photocatalytic reactivity of the ETVS-10 samples for VOCs decomposition.