Kinetics of reduction of a Resazurin-based photocatalytic activity ink

The kinetics of reduction of a Resazurin, Rz,-based photocatalyst activity indicator ink, paii, on a commercial sample of self-cleaning glass, Activ™ is examined; the latter has ca. a 15nm compact coating of anatase TiO2 which serves as the active photocatalyst layer. The rate of dye reduction is reduced significantly by the presence of ambient O2. In the absence of O2, the measured change in film absorbance due to Rz, d Δ Abs/dt, was found to be independent of both [Rz] and film thickness, b. It is shown that this translates to the rate of dye reduction, d[Rz]/dt, being independent of the concentration of the Rz in the ink film, [Rz], and inversely proportional to film thickness, b. The observed kinetics are rationalised in terms of a kinetic model in which the rate determining step is the reduction of photocatalyst surface-adsorbed Rz by photo-generated surface electrons, with all photocatalyst surface sites occupied by Rz. Further work suggests that, if the kinetics of the photocatalysed reduction of the Rz paii were diffusion-controlled, then the decay in [Rz] would be first order and dependent upon b-2.