Enhancing air treatment through controlled fabrication of transition metal-doped titanium dioxide nanocomposites for photocatalytic toluene degradation.

Rapid industrial growth and urbanization have resulted in a significant rise in environmental pollution issues, particularly indoor air pollutants. As a result, it is crucial to design and develop technologies and/or catalysts that are not only cost-effective but also promising high performance and practical applicability. However, achieving this goal has been so far remained a challenging task. Herein, a series of transition metal M − TiO 2 (M = W, Fe, Mn) nanocrystals was prepared for photocatalytic degradation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), i.e., toluene. Of the nanocomposites tested, W–TiO 2 showed significantly improved photocatalytic activity for VOC degradation under UV irradiation compared to the others. In particular, the optimized W dopant amount of 0.5 wt% resulted in the outstanding degradation performance of toluene (96%) for the obtained W–TiO 2 (0.5%) nanocomposite. Moreover, W–TiO 2 (0.5%) nanocomposite exhibited good stability for 32 h working under high toluene concentration (10 ppm) compared to the pristine TiO 2. The current work demonstrates the potential usage of M − TiO 2 nanocrystals, particularly W–TiO 2 (0.5%), as a promising photocatalyst for efficient VOCs degradation. [Display omitted] • W–TiO 2 exhibited an enhanced photocatalytic efficiency. • Lifetime of W–TiO 2 increased 6.4 times compared with TiO 2. • W–TiO 2 could be regenerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]