Modelling of a recirculating photocatalytic microreactor implementing mesoporous N-TiO2 modified with graphene

Abstract The use of microreactors in (photo)catalytic processes offers new possibilities for studying and optimizing many mass and photon transfer limited reactions. In this study, we propose a scalable computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for the prediction of photocatalytic degradation of a model pollutant (4-nitrophenol) using immobilized N-doped TiO2 grown over reduced graphene oxide (N-TiO2/rGO) in a photocatalytic microreactor working in continuous flow-recirculation mode. The mode of operation used in this study allows the reduction of mass transfer limitations inherent to heterogeneous photocatalytic reactions taking place on immobilized catalysts. A CFD model was developed for …