[Preparation of TiO2 pillared montmorillonite photocatalyst and its photocatalytic activity to degradation reaction of acidic fuchsine by sunlight].

TiO2 pillared montmorillonite composite photocatalyst was synthesized by acid-catalyzed sol method and characterized by IR, UV-Vis, TG/DTA, XRD, SEM etc. Spectral analyses have demonstrated that TiO2 pillared montmorillonite(Ti-MMT) has wider interlayer distance than Na substituted montmorillonite (Na-MMT) and higher optical absorption efficiency than nanoscale anatase TiO2. The photocatalytic degradation reaction of acidic fuchsine by sunlight was employed to evaluate the catalytic activity of the composite catalyst. It was found that, besides easy reclaimation, the photocatalytic activity of the catalyst was much higher than that of the pure nanosized anatase TiO2. When the addition amount of Ti-MMT is 0.2 g x (100 mL)(-1) and pH of acidic fuchsine solution is 3, the dye could be degraded thoroughly in 40 min and the degradation reaction obeys Langmuir- Hinshelwood equation.