Monitoring the photocatalytic oxidation of water-based organic pollutants by FT-IR spectroscopy in real-time

Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants is a promising technology for water treatment. We have designed a germanium attenuated total internal reflection flow cell for continuous real-time mid-infrared spectroscopy of liquids. We have used our flow cell to follow the photocatalytic degradation of the test pollutant methylene blue in water by TiO
₂
activated by ultraviolet light. Our results shed light on the photocatalytic reaction pathway.