Journal of Environmental Biology

Titamium oxide (TiO₂) assisted photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

G.M. Madhu*¹, M.A. Lourdu Antony Raj¹ and K. Vasantha Kumar Pai²

¹Department of Chemical Engineering, R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore - 560 059, India

²Department of Industrial Chemistry, Kuvempu University, Shankaragatta - 577 451, India

(Received: June 15, 2007 ; Revised received: October 04, 2007 ; Accepted: October 16, 2007)

Abstract: The aqueous solution of methylene blue(MB) has been subjected to Photocatalytic degradation by UV radiation in presence of TiO₂ photo-catalyst containing different concentrations of H₂O₂.  The experiments conducted at different dye concentrations (12 and 20 ppm), catalyst loading, pH and H₂O₂ dosage (1-10 ml l^-1), revealed that the degradation rate is strongly influenced by respective experimental parameters.  However the influence of catalyst alone is not predominant in degradation.  The decolorization of dye proceed to near completeness when H₂O₂ is used.  The best degradation results are observed at 0.1 wt% of catalyst loading at pH 2 for TiO₂/UV system.  It has been found that the optimum concentration of H₂O₂ for 12 ppm and 20 ppm amount of the dye was 2ml l^-1 for UV/H₂O₂ system.  The kinetic of  degradation of the dye followed the pseudo first order rate.  The degradation studies using TiO₂/UV/H₂O₂ system, indicates enhancement in the degradation rate of the dye  compared to that of  UV/H₂O₂ system alone.

Key words: Methylene blue, TiO₂, Photocatalytic, Discoloration

PDF of full length paper is available with author (*madhugm_2000@yahoo.com)

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