Preparation and photocatalytic activity of heteropolyacid salt (POM)/TiO2 composites synthesized by solid phase combustion method

In this paper, a photocatalyst POM/TiO 2 was prepared using heteropolyacid salt (NH 4 ) 4 [Mo 8 O 24 (C 3 H 2 O 4 ) 2 ]·4H 2 O (denoted as POM) and TiO 2 via solid phase combustion method. The structure of POM/TiO 2 was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray spectrometer (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and the photocatalytic activity was evaluated by degrading toluene under UV light illumination. The results showed that when (i) the mass ratios of POM/TiO 2 were 1:0.7, (ii) the calcination temperature was 400 °C, (iii) ecalcination time was 3 h, the degradation ratio for toluene was 67.55% and it was an increment of 36.23% compared with those of TiO 2 alone. TiO 2 /POM exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity.