Correlations between molecular descriptors from various volatile organic compounds and photocatalytic oxidation kinetic constants

Abstract : The photocatalytic oxidation of seven typical indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are experimentally investigated using novel nanocrystalline TiO2 dip-coated catalysts. Not only the role of hydrophilicity of the reactants but also other physico-chemical properties and molecular descriptors are studied and related to kinetic and equilibrium constants. The main objective of this work consists in establishing simple relationships that will be useful to deepen the understanding of gas phase heterogeneous photocatalytic mechanisms and for the prediction of degradation rates of these VOCs using an indoor air treatment process.