Influence of Dissolved Ions on the Water Purification Performance of TiO2-Impregnated Porous Silica Tubes

TiO2-coated porous silica glass tubes containing macropores were fabricated and evaluated for their water-purification capacity using aqueous solutions of methylene blue. From the results of photocatalytic degradation tests at different initial methylene blue concentrations, the equilibrium adsorption constant (K) was determined to be 4.6 × 10−2 L μmol−1, and the Langmuir-Hinshelwood rate constant (kLH) was calculated as 2.6 μM min−1. To determine the influence of ions on the efficiency of methylene blue degradation, we examined both Milli-Q water (soft water) and Contrex water (hard water) as solvents, and confirmed the reduced purification for the Contrex solution. It was, therefore, considered that the presence of inorganic salts decreased the photocatalytic efficiency. Furthermore, variations in the methylene blue decomposition ability were observed between anion-free and cation-free Contrex. Finally, we concluded that the efficiency of photocatalytic decomposition of TiO2 was influenced by multiple parameters, including the presence of anions and cations, as well as the solution pH.