dc.description.abstract | With rapid urbanization and industrialization, anthropogenic discharge of organic compounds has led to serious water pollution. In Taiwan, water contamination has been discovered widespread, and tricholorethylene (TCE) is ranked as second common organic pollutant in groundwater. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified TCE as a human carcinogen. Thus, there is an urgent need to eliminate TCE. Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP), which is of the highest efficiency to remove organic pollutants and produce non-toxic byproducts, is better than other traditional treatments. Photocatalytic oxidation is one of the AOPs. In recent years, perovskite-type photocatalysts have been found with high photocatalytic activity under visible light in addition to TiO2. Besides, LaFeO3 becomes a kind of potential “environmentally friendly photocatalyst” due to its advantages of abundance and non-toxicity. It can utilize the visible light efficiently and generate electron-hole pairs under visible light to photocatalytically degrade contaminants in water. LaFeO3 is prepared and applied as photocatalyst to remove TCE in liquid phase. In summary, LaFeO3 photocatalyst is successfully synthesized via sol-gel method. Furthermore, LaFeO3 photocatalyst is proved for good photocatalytic activity for the degradation of TCE in aqueous solution under continuous spectrum illumination within 1 h. In our experiment, TCE concentration can maintain the same in this system and ensures that the TCE removal is contributed by photocatalytic degradation rather than volatility. The effects of light intensity, photocatalyst loading and pH on TCE photodegradation are evaluated. By increasing the light intensity, activated sites and OH group would accelerate the formation rate of OH radical to attack TCE in aqueous phase, resulting in higher TCE removal efficiency. | en_US |