ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Photocatalytic Degradation of Synthetic Textile
Effluent by Modified Sol-Gel, Synthesized
Mobilized and Immobilized TiO2,
and Ag-doped TiO2
Tayyaba Muhammad Akram1,3, Nasir Ahmad2, Irfan Ahmad Shaikh1
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1College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore 5459, Pakistan
2Institute of Geology, University of the Punjab, Lahore 5459, Pakistan
3Department of Science Education (IER), University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan
Submission date: 2016-02-04
Final revision date: 2016-02-26
Acceptance date: 2016-03-07
Publication date: 2016-07-22
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2016;25(4):1391-1402
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ABSTRACT
Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have proven to be very effective for treating various hazardous
organic pollutants in water. The present study uses a double-walled horizontal glass reactor (DHGR)
to investigate heterogeneous UV/TiO2 (titanium dioxide) and UV/Ag-TiO2 (mobilized and immobilized)
photocatalytic degradation of synthetic textile effluent (Remazol Red RGB) with UV (400W). The textile
effluent was characterized in terms of pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and degree of decolorization
(at 519 nm) before and after treatment. Optimum degradation results were obtained at pH3. We also found
that with different catalysts and catalyst doses, the rate of degradation rises up to a maximum “critical”
value. The electron scavenger was Ag-led to a faster degradation of synthetic textile effluent in the photocatalytic
system. The photocatalytic degradation proved to be dependent on the effluents’ initial COD,
catalyst dose, catalyst form, and pH of the medium. Results reveled that among different forms of catalysts,
Ag-TiO2 (Mesh) and TiO2 (0.5 g) showed better COD percentage and ABS percentage removal at pH3 with
initial concentrations of synthetic effluent 560mg/l under UV(400W) irradiation.