Investigation of the anchoring silane coupling reagent effect in porphyrin sensitized mesoporous V-TiO2 on the photodegradation efficiency of methyl orange under visible light irradiation

In order to efficient utilization of visible light in the photodegradation reaction, mesoporous vanadium doped TiO₂ (V-TiO₂) particles sensitized by tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP) dyes were synthesized, and characterized. For investigation of the anchoring coupling between porphyrin and TiO₂ surface, two photocatalyst containing ester-like linkage (TCPP–V-TiO₂) and amide-like linkage (TCPP–NH₂–V-TiO₂) were compared in the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) aqueous solution. It was found that the photocatalytic activity of the TCPP–V-TiO₂ was higher than TCPP–NH₂–V-TiO₂ (95 % compared to 62 %). Importantly, TCPP–V-TiO₂ was particularly stable in the visible light photocatalytic activity after six cycles.