Zirconia/titania mixed oxide binary oxide mixture photocatalyst were prepared by sol-gel method from ZTP(zirconium tetra propoxide) and TTIP(titanium tetra isopropoxide) and the photocatalytic decomposition rate of TCE(trichloroethylene) was measured.
As the zirconia content increases, phase transformation temperature from anatase to rutile increases which should have helped to increase the photocatalytic activity. But it turned out the low level of surface hydroxyl concentration canceled the positive effect of the thermal stability on the high photoactivity. Addition of zirconium reduced the pore diameter, which contributed to the increase in BET area. Regardless of the preparation condition such as the amount of zirconia content, calcination temperature, $H^{+}/M^{+}$ ratio, the TCE photodecomposition rate was found to be linearly increased with the anatase crystallite size.
