Summary: | The aim of this work is to study the activity of novel TiO<sub>2</sub>-based photocatalysts doped with either phosphorus or zirconium under a UV-Vis source. A set of mesoporous catalysts was prepared by the direct synthesis: TiO<sub>2</sub>_A and TiO<sub>2</sub>_B (titanium oxide synthesized by two different procedures), P-TiO<sub>2</sub> and Zr-TiO<sub>2</sub> (binary oxides with either nonmetal or metal into the TiO<sub>2</sub> framework). Complementary characterizations (N<sub>2</sub> physisorption at 77 K, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and (DR)UV-Vis spectroscopy) were used to investigate the physicochemical properties of the prepared catalysts. Then, the photocatalysts were tested for the oxidation of propylene and ethylene under UV-Vis light. As a result, the most promising catalyst for both the propylene and ethylene oxidation reactions was the P-TiO<sub>2</sub> (propylene conversion = 27.8% and ethylene conversion = 13%, TOS = 3 h), thus confirming the beneficial effect of P-doping into the TiO<sub>2</sub> framework on the photocatalytic activity.
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