Drastically enhanced visible-light photocatalytic degradation of colorless aromatic pollutants over TiO2 via a charge-transfer-complex path: A correlation between chemical structure and degradation rate of the pollutants

Photocatalytic degradation of colorless aniline and phenolic pollutants was investigated over TiO2 under visible-light irradiation, which was confirmed to proceed via a charge-transfer-complex (CTC)-mediated pathway. The correlation between the chemical structure and the degradation rate of these pollutants was established experimentally and theoretically. It was found that an electron-donating substituent in benzene ring, which raises the highest occupied molecular orbital and lowers the ionization potential of the organic compound, is favorable to the CTC-mediated photodegradation of the pollutant, but an electron- withdrawing substituent has a reversed effect. The addition of sacrificial electron acceptors was adopted to enhance the degradation and mineralization of the aromatic pollutants. The increased degradation rate by 3 to 10 times suggests that the CTC-mediated photocatalytic technique has promising applications in the removal of colorless organic pollutants in the presence of sacrificial electron acceptors.