Formaldehyde Removal using Fiber Coated with Titanium Dioxide

This research aimed to study the preparation of fiber coated with titanium dioxide (TiO2) catalyst for formaldehyde removal. The fiber was coated with TiO2 solution with different concentrations of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50% w/v. The crystal structure of the TiO2 catalyst was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD results showed that the crystal structures of the TiO2 catalyst consisted of the anatase and rutile phases. After that, the fiber coated with TiO2 catalyst was tested for formaldehyde removal using 5 ppm of initial formaldehyde concentration in a closed system with and without ultraviolet light. In addition, the number of samples at 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 samples were investigated. The result showed that the formaldehyde removal increased with increasing the TiO2 concentration and the number
of samples. Moreover, ultraviolet light can assist in activating the TiO2 catalyst, resulting in the increase of formaldehyde removal. The behavior of formaldehyde removal under ultraviolet light showed exponential decay. In addition, the formaldehyde removal efficiency also increased with increasing the TiO2 concentration and the number of samples. The fiber coated with 50% w/v TiO2 of 25 samples showed the highest formaldehyde removal efficiency approximately 94.00%. These results indicated that the fiber coated with TiO2 catalyst could be applied as air filtration for formaldehyde removal applications.