To date, carbon and nitrogen co-doped photocatalysts (CN-TiO2) for environmental application focused mainly on the aqueous phase to investigate the decomposition of water pollutants. Accordingly, the present study explored the photocatalytic performance of CN-TiO2 photocatalysts for the purification of indoor-level gas-phase aromatic species under different operational conditions. The characteristics of prepared photocatalysts were investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning emission microscope, diffuse reflectance UV-VIS-NIR analysis, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. In most cases, the decomposition efficiency for the target compounds exhibited a decreasing trend as input concentration (IC) increased. Specifically, the average decomposition efficiencies for benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylene (BTEX) over a 3-h process decreased from 29% to close to zero, 80 to 5%, 95 to 19%, and 99 to 32%, respectively, as the IC increased from 0.1 to 2.0 ppm. The decomposition efficiencies obtained from the CN-TiO2 photocatalytic system were higher than those of the TiO2 system. As relative humidity (RH) increased from 20 to 95%, the decomposition efficiencies for BTEX decreased from 39 to 5%, 97 to 59%, 100 to 87%, and 100 to 92%, respectively. In addition, as the stream flow rates (SFRs) decreased from 3.0 to 1.0 L min-1, the average efficiencies for BTEX increased from 0 to 58%, 63 to 100%, 69 to 100%, and 68 to 100%, respectively. Taken together, these findings suggest that three (IC, RH, and SFR) should be considered for better BTEX decomposition efficiencies when applying CN-TiO2 photocatalytic technology to purification of indoor air BTEX.

Abstract
 1. Introduction
 2. Experimental
  2.1. Preparation and characterization of photocatalysts
  2.2. Purification tests of target compounds
 3. Results and discussion
  3.1. Characteristics of photocatalysts
  3.2. Purification efficiencies of BTEX determined via CN-TiO2under different conditions
 4. Conclusions
 References

• Wan-Kuen Jo(Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungpook National University) Corresponding author
• Hyun-Jung Kang(Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungpook National University)