Surface diffusion control of the photocatalytic oxidation in air/TiO₂ heterogeneous reactors

Abstract

The diffusion of superoxide radical anions on the surface of TiO₂ catalysts is theoretically considered as an important step in the kinetics of photocatalytic oxidation of toxic pollutants. A detailed analysis is performed to discriminate the effects of rotation and adsorption bond vibrations on the diffusion coefficient. A resonant dependence of the diffusivity on the lattice parameters of the TiO₂ surface is discovered showing that the most rapid diffusion takes place when the lattice parameters are twice as large as the the bond length of the superoxide radical anions. Whereas the rotation and vibrations normal to the catalyst surface are important, the anion bond vibrations do not affect the diffusivity due to their low amplitudes as compared to the lattice parameters.