Photocatalytic degradation of trace hexane in the gas phase with and without ozone addition: kinetic study

The degradations of trace hexane in the gas phase by O3/UV, TiO2/UV and O3/TiO2/UV were studied. The effects of the flow rate, inlet concentration of hexane, water vapor concentration and ozone dosage on the conversion of hexane in the three processes were investigated, respectively. The experimental results showed that the addition of ozone significantly increase photocatalytic degradation of hexane. The reaction rates of hexane by O3/UV and O3/TiO2/UV increased linearly with an increase of ozone addition, which increased faster in O3/UV than in O3/TiO2/UV. L–H bimolecular model was successfully used to correlate photocatalytic reaction rate data under various hexane and water vapor concentrations. A new model combining L–H model and ozone photolysis was developed to correlate reaction rate data of hexane in O3/TiO2/UV.