Study of the Effectiveness of Photocatalytic Titanium Dioxide Films in Water Purification Devices

Abstract

The article discusses the effectiveness of titanium dioxide photocatalytic films in water purification devices. Despite the many studies published on this topic, information on the effect of photocatalysis on the characteristics of disinfected water is rather contradictory and unsystematic. This is due to the large number of parameters used to assess water quality, the most important of which are turbidity and colour. Optical transmittance is a fundamental parameter for determining these parameters. A TiO₂ photocatalytic film was formed on the outer surface of a quartz bulb protecting the UV lamp of the water purification device from mechanical damage using the pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering method. The proposed solution avoids the loss of UV radiation when passing through the water layer, which has a positive effect on the intensity of the photocatalytic reaction. An experimental setup consisting of a flow-through disinfector, in which organic pollutants are decomposed, a tank with the liquid to be purified, and a pump has been tested. This setup allows the effectiveness of photocatalytic elements in water purify-cation devices to be evaluated. It has been experimenttally shown that the use of a photocatalytic element in a flow-through reactor for water purification allows the optical transmittance of a 0.005 % methylene blue solution in the 500--700 nm wavelength range to be increased from 40--45 % when decomposed by a UV disinfectant without a photocatalytic element to 58--65 % when using a photocatalytic cell

Please cite this article in English as:

Shashin D.E., Dyachkov A.D., Romanov A.L. Study of the effectiveness of photocatalytic titanium dioxide films in water purification devices. Herald of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Series Instrument Engineering, 2026, no. 1 (154), pp. 34--46 (in Russ.). EDN: EBSWBK

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