3D solid carbon foam-based photocatalytic materials for vapor phase flow-through structured photoreactors

3D solid carbon foams were used as support for preparing photocatalytic materials working in a traversing-flow mode and designing efficient vapor phase flow-through structured photoreactors. The carbon foams were obtained by resin polymerization and pyrolysis treatments starting from a three-dimension structured reticulated polyurethane foam used as a pre-shaped precursor. The 3D solid carbon foam supported TiO2 photocatalysts were characterized in terms of morphology, pressure drop, light transmission ability and static mixer role, and using the vapor phase methanol UV-A photocatalytic oxidation as target reaction. The foam-structured photoreactor benefits from a strong gain of exposed surface leading to an increased surface to reactor volume ratio with a large increase in the TiO2 amount inside the reactor. Further, the improved air-to-surface contact probability ratio induced by the static mixer effect of the foam resulted in a high methanol conversion obtained at a given TiO2 amount in the reactor. The potential of this 3D-structured photocatalytic material for flow-through photoreactors targeting real applications was also highlighted by induced ultra-low-pressure drops resulting from a high porosity and a large cell size morphology. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.