Environmentally-friendly harvesting TiO2 nanospheres and V2O5 microrods from spent selective catalytic reduction catalysts

Spent selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts are defined as hazardous wastes because of the toxicity of V₂O₅ to the ecological environment. Recycling of V₂O₅ and TiO₂ from the spent SCR catalysts has strikingly social and environmental benefits as well as economic values. In this work, a “NaOH ?+ ?Na₂CO₃” system was employed to recycle 99.2% of anatase/rutile TiO₂ nanospheres with a nanospherical morphology from the spent SCR catalysts by a simple sintering-leaching process. The observed photocatalytic performance of anatase/rutile TiO₂ nanospheres was higher than that of the other TiO₂ recovered from the spent SCR catalysts, commercial TiO₂, and chemosynthetic TiO₂, which can be ascribed to the enhanced separation of photo-excited electron/hole in a direct Z-scheme of anatase/rutile TiO₂ homostructures. Additionally, high-purity V₂O₅ microrods with high H₂S removal performance were efficiently prepared by a hydrothermal method in the leaching solution, which is superior to the traditional method including NH₄VO₃ precipitation and solvent extraction as the present method can recycle vanadate from low-grade filtrate with a 99.6% of recovery rate. This study develops an alternative method for controlling pollution of vanadate to soil and water and recycling of valuable metals.