Treatment of synthetic rainwater using composite catalyst-(TIO2/FE2O3) by photocatalysis process
Loading...
Date
2019-06
Authors
Nur Afiqah Binti Abdullah
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The present work focuses on the synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic activity
of a composite catalyst (TiO2/Fe2O3) in degradation of fluoranthene (FLT) and pyrene
(PYR) using heterogeneous photocatalysis process. The samples were synthesized by the
inexpensive and environmentally sol–gel method and characterized by using techniques
such as X-RayDiffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive XRay (SEM-EDX), UV–Vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectra (UV-Vis DRS) and BrunauerEmmett-Teller (BET). Synthetic rainwater was used under different experimental conditions of pH and concentration of the (TiO2/Fe2O3). In order to maximize the process efficiency, response surface methodology (RSM) was used by considering two
independent variables of pH and (TiO2/Fe2O3) concentration. In this study, the
concentration of the pollutants were kept constant throughout the treatment process. The
result of characterization showed that doped titania has high surface area (80.9 m2/g),
narrow band gap (1.6 eV) and able to absorb wavelength in the visible region up to (>400
nm). The highest percentage of removal obtained from the experimental run (actual) for
FLT and PYR 30 minutes after treatment are 75% and 87%, respectively, while for after
60 minutes of treatment for FLT and PYR are 97% and 92% respectively, occurs at
optimum condition of pH=5 and minimum dosage of (TiO2/Fe2O3) of 0.25 g/L. The
degradation of pollutants obtained in this study confirmed the feasible use of natural
sunlight as the UV source for the photocatalysis process to take place.