Enhanced Photocatalytic Oxidation of Isopropanol by HKUST-1@TiO₂ Core–Shell Structure with Ultrathin Anatase Porous Shell: Toxic Intermediate Control

Abstract

Poor adsorption of reactants and intermediates as well as low mineralization rate greatly restrict the application of common semiconductor photocatalyst TiO2 for air purification. A plausible solution would be to integrate metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) materials with good gas adsorption property with traditional photocatalytic material TiO2 with exciton generation. A core–shell structured photocatalyst with functional MOFs HKUST-1 (Cu3(BTC)2, BTC = 1,3,5 benzenetricarboxylate) as core and porous ultrathin anatase film as shell was synthesized. The composite photocatalyst was characterized in detail, and isopropanol degradation experiments were performed to evaluate the photocatalytic performances. The experimental results revealed that HKUST-1 can provide a special pathway for photogenerated electrons migration and thus restrain the recombination of electrons and holes to increase the photocatalytic efficiency. Furthermore, the capture of reactants and intermediates was also enhanced due to the unique MOFs-TiO2 composite structure, and the mineralization rate had been markedly enhanced.