ABSTRACT:
A visible light active photocatalyst prepared using dextrose as carbon source; preparation was performed by a sol-gel method at 500ºC and named as 2C-TiO2. The 2C-TiO2 is extensively characterized using several techniques including UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM and EDX. Rhodamine B dye as a model contaminant in order to investigate its photocatalytic activity under solar light irradiation. The effects of pH, catalyst concentration and dye concentration on degradation reaction were also investigated. The efficiency of photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B tended to decrease with increasing the concentration of dye, increase as pH is increased up to 10.6. The degradation efficiency of rhodamine B is found to increase as the amount of the catalyst dosage increases up to an optimum value of 0.3g/100ml. Increasing the concentrations of photocatalyst beyond 0.3g/100ml was found to decrease the photocatalytic activity of rhodamine B. It was proven that the degradation process of rhodamine B reaction rate obeyed a pseudo-first-order reaction of the catalyst concentration of 2C-TiO2. The results obtained showed that after using the catalyst four times repeatedly, the catalyst retained its efficiency and the rate of the degradation process for the first recycle was still above 75%.
Cite this article:
P. Buela Nesa Kumari, G. Allen Gnana Raj. Photocatalytic Degradation of Synthetic Dye Rhodamine B to Environmentally Non-Toxic Products under Solar Light using Doped Titania Nanopowder Synthesized by Sol-gel Method. Asian J. Research Chem. 2017; 10(6):813-818. doi: 0.5958/0974-4150.2017.00136.5
Cite(Electronic):
P. Buela Nesa Kumari, G. Allen Gnana Raj. Photocatalytic Degradation of Synthetic Dye Rhodamine B to Environmentally Non-Toxic Products under Solar Light using Doped Titania Nanopowder Synthesized by Sol-gel Method. Asian J. Research Chem. 2017; 10(6):813-818. doi: 0.5958/0974-4150.2017.00136.5 Available on: https://www.ajrconline.org/AbstractView.aspx?PID=2017-10-6-16