Photocatalytic performance of combustion synthesized β-Ga2O3 for the degradation of tri-n-butyl phosphate in aqueous solution

Nanostructures of β-Ga2O3 were prepared by solution combustion route using urea as the fuel. Transmission electron microscopic measurements and powder X-ray diffraction measurements confirmed the crystalline nature of β-Ga2O3 with particle size in the range of 10–15 nm. Surface area measurements indicated that the synthesized semiconductor catalyst had a specific surface area of 30 m2/g. In this work, photocatalytic degradation studies of tri-n-butyl phosphate using nano sized β-Ga2O3 is presented. A cylindrical photoreactor was used for the degradation studies and gas chromatographic estimation was adopted to follow the extent of degradation. Complete degradation of tributyl phosphate could be achieved in less than 40 min using 10 mg of photocatalyst and 0.5 mL of H2O2 for 1000 mL of 400 ppm TBP. Degradation of TBP was found to follow pseudo first order kinetics and the rate of TBP degradation was found to be superior for β-Ga2O3 photocatalyst compared to P-25 TiO2.