Activated Carbon Prepared from Orange Peels Coated with Titanium Oxide Nanoparticles: Characterization and Applications in the Decomposition of NOx

In this work, we report the degradation of NOx using two catalysts prepared by coating activated carbon from orange peels with TiO2. This study compared the performance of TiO2coated catalysts prepared by CVD (AC1/TiO2) and the sol-gel method (AC2/TiO2). The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, BET surface area and TEM. The photocatalytic activity was measured by studying the degradation of NOx in the vapor phase. The results show that the catalyst synthesized by the CVD method was more efficient in the decomposition of NOx. TEM and XRD revealed the presence of a mixture of the anatase and rutile phases, which favors the NOx decomposition process. Nitrogen isotherms showed that coating the nanoparticles with titanium oxide did not significantly change the surface area of the original activated carbon.