Abstract: In(OH)₃/AC composites were prepared by one-step hydrothermal situ method using In(NO₃)₃ and hexamine (HMT) as precursor and activated carbon (AC) as carrier. XRD, FT-IR, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), SEM and TEM were used to characterize the obtained composites. Toluene was used as a probe molecule to investigate the photocatalytic activity of the obtained composites. The results showed that the conjugation effect was presented between the AC bulk and In—O bond and the addition of AC not only affected the particle size distribution of In(OH)₃ but also reduced the interplanar spacing and the degree of crystallinity of In(OH)₃. AC has relationship with the adsorption intensity of composites, and has no apparent relations with the energy band structure and particle of morphology In(OH)₃. The degradation rate of toluene was 98.25% under UV irradiation 60minutes when the addition of AC was 3%. This showed that the appropriate amount of activated carbon could effectively improve the photocatalytic performance of composites because In(OH)₃/AC catalysts had synergetic effect of AC adsorption and In(OH)₃ photocatalysis on the degradation of toluene.

Key words: In(OH)₃, activated carbon, toluene, photocatalysis, degradation