Photocatalytic degradation of acid green 25 utilizing sol gel derived TiO2 photocatalyst supported on montmorillonite

Abstract

Photocatalysis is a technique that can be useful for the treatment of wastewater from the textile industry and its advantages may make it suitable for commercialization. The photocatalytic degradation of dye Acid Green 25 (AG25) by using titanium dioxide (TiO2) catalyst was studied under UV irradiation. TiO2 catalyst exhibits good adsorption ability for the polar structure. Supports make the catalyst easily separated from the treated effluent. Hence, TiO2 immobilized on montmorillonite was successfully synthesized and immobilized through sol-gel method to improve the ability of photocatalysis process. The surface morphology of the TiO2 catalyst immobilized on the montmorillonite was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and the Electron Dispersion XRay (EDX) analyzer was used to characterize the elemental composition of the immobilized TiO2. A photocatalytic reactor was successfully designed to function under UV-radiation. TiO2 photocatalyst was made through the formulation of 1TTIP: 22 i-PrOH: 4 DEA: 2H2O. The photocatalytic degradation was examined under difference parameters which are catalyst loading, concentration of AG25 and pH. Maximum degradation increased with increasing TiO2 concentration up to 2.0g/L TiO2. Degradation decreased with increasing amount of concentration of AG25. The study indicated that the best degradation of AG25 took place in the acidic condition (i.e = pH 2) in 30ppm concentration of AG25 with 2.0g/L catalyst.