Carbon-based TiO2 materials for the degradation of Microcystin-LA Sampaio, M.J. Silva, C.G. Silva, A.M.T. Pastrana-Martinez, L.M. Han, C. Morales Torres, Sergio Figueiredo, J.L. Dionysiou, D.D. Faria, J.L. The photocatalytic degradation of a cyanobacterial toxin, microcystin-LA (MC-LA), was studied in aqueous solutions under both simulated solar light and visible light irradiation. Neat TiO2 and carbon-based TiO2 materials, prepared with carbon nanotubes (CNT) or graphene oxide (GO), were compared. The highest photocatalytic activity was obtained with a GO-TiO2 composite comprising 4 wt.% of carbon content (GO-TiO2-4). Complete conversion of MC-LA was achieved under solar light irradiation in 5 min. GO-TiO2-4 was also active under visible light illumination, with 88% of MC-LA removal in 2 h. The high photocatalytic activity of GO-TiO2-4 was attributed to the optimal assembly and interfacial coupling between the TiO2 nanoparticles and the GO sheets that can effectively inhibit electron/hole recombination. Reaction intermediates of MC-LA photocatalytic degradation were also identified by LC/Q-TOF and LC/MS/MS, most of them resulting from the attack of hydroxyl radicals to the MC-LA molecule under solar light irradiation. 2024-02-05T08:45:18Z 2024-02-05T08:45:18Z 2015-07 journal article Applied Catalysis B: Environmental Volumes 170–171, 2015, Pages 74-82 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/88219 10.1016/j.apcatb.2015.01.013 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier