Title: Effect of low cost activated carbon on the photocatalytic degradation of Acid blue 158 from aqueous solution

Authors: P. Ravichandran; A. Sowmya; M. Hasmath Farzana; S. Meenakshi

Addresses: Textiles Committee, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, New Delhi-110 028, India ' Department of Chemistry, Gandhigram Rural Institute, Gandhigram-624 302, Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Chemistry, Gandhigram Rural Institute, Gandhigram-624 302, Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Chemistry, Gandhigram Rural Institute, Gandhigram-624 302, Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract: The photocatalytic degradation of Acid blue 158, an anionic dye was carried out using the mixture of activated carbon prepared from sugar mill waste bagasse (BC) and TiO₂ (BC + TiO₂) under UV irradiation. Adsorption studies using BC and photodegradation using TiO₂/UV were also carried out for comparison. The parameters such as contact time, effect of dose, and pH were investigated to study the effect of BC on the photocatalytic degradation efficiency. The dye removal percentage (DRP) by BC was 31% by the adsorption process at 15 min contact time and above this time the system reached saturation. The BC + TiO₂ were shown high dye removal percentage (DRP) of 81% after 240 min under UV radiation while the DRP by TiO₂ was 49%. It was observed that the presence of the BC enhanced the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the TiO₂ catalyst. The isotherm equilibrium data were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich models. The negative free energy ΔG° values revealed that the dye removal process is spontaneous. The kinetic data were fitted to reaction-based models and diffusion-based models.

Keywords: bagasse carbon; acid blue 158; titanium dioxide; TiO2; co-catalyst; synergetic effect; low cost activated carbon; photocatalytic degradation; aqueous solution; anionic dyes; sugar mill waste; adsorption; wastewater treatment; dye removal; modelling; water pollution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2014.062158

International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2014 Vol.6 No.2, pp.205 - 219

Received: 21 Sep 2011
Accepted: 21 Jul 2012
Published online: 02 Jul 2014 *

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