Enhanced photocatalytic degradation of atrazine by platinized titanium dioxide under 352 nm irradiation

Simply coating 1 wt.% of platinum on titanium dioxide (TiO₂) surface resulted in simple preparation of platinized TiO₂ (Pt-TiO₂). This study demonstrated the photodegradation of atrazine (ATZ) using either Pt-TiO₂ or TiO₂ as a photocatalyst under 352 nm light irradiation. The Pt-TiO₂-catalyzed ATZ degradation reached 76% in 3 hours without adding H₂O₂ solution or aeration, which was more than 10% higher than the TiO₂-catalyzed reaction. The decomposition product of Pt-TiO₂-catalyzed ATZ degradation was mainly cyanuric acid. Thus, Pt-TiO₂ as an effective photocatalyst has three main advantages in the photodegradation of ATZ under 352 nm irradiation. First, the coated Pt can facilitate the generation of appropriate amounts of OH radicals, so it can prevent the formation of over-oxidized TiO₂. Second, aeration was not needed. Third, the excited electrons were mainly uni-directionally transferred to the catalyst surface to avoid recombination of electron-hole pairs.