High Effective Composite RGO/TiO₂ Photocatalysts to Degrade Isopropanol Pollutant in Semiconductor Industry

This research focused on the photodegradation of aqueous isopropanol in the presence of RGO/TiO₂ photocatalysts, which were prepared by the hydrothermal method. Under the irradiation of the simulated sunlight AM1.5G, the photocatalytic activity of isopropanol degradation was studied. In addition, various initial isopropanol concentrations (20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 ppm) were employed in the photocatalytic reaction. P25RGO-0.01% was found to give the highest isopropanol removal of 92.24% at the initial isopropanol concentrations of 20 ppm. Such optimal loading of reduced graphene oxide can act as an electron trapping to suppress the possibility of the recombination of electron–hole pairs. Additionally, acetone was verified to be one of the main in1termediate products. Moreover, it was found that the acidic condition was advantageous to photodegrade isopropanol because of favorable conditions for forming hydroxyl radicals and superoxide radicals. The recyclability test was also verified by three sequent reactions and shown negligible decay of catalysts. This research demonstrated the feasibility of using photocatalysis to remove isopropanol wastewater in sunlight.