Abstract: Commercial activated carbon (AC) was post-activated by means of simultaneous physical-chemical activation in order to produce porous carbon supports with different pore sizes and surface areas. Photocatalysts of AC-supported TiO2 were prepared by well-dispersed deposition using inorganic species of H2TiO3 as Ti source. Nitrogen adsorption, XRD, and SEM were used to characterize ACs and TiO2/ACs and to investigate the influence of AC surface area and pore size on the resultant catalysts. The photocatalytic performance of TiO2/AC catalysts was studied by degradation of methylene blue (MB) in aqueous solution. The influence of catalyst dosage and MB concentration on the degradation was investigated. The results showed that nano-TiO2 deposit was formed in the particle size of 12-20 nm. The larger the AC surface area and average pore size, the smaller the TiO2 particle formed on the carbon surface. It was found that TiO2/AC catalysts had a synergetic effect of AC adsorption and TiO2 photocatalysis on the degradation of MB, so that the efficiency increased significantly. The kinetics of MB degradation by TiO2/AC was of apparent first order reaction mechanism.

Key words: Supported TiO2, Activated carbon support, Pore size, Photocatalyst, Methylene blue