Abstract
Cleaning wastewater has become one of the most serious issues for a number of scientists and researchers in recent years, as water is the most basic need for the daily life of humans. There has been a focus on the removal of noxious pollutants from wastewater effluents by using nanocatalysts owing to their unique physicochemical actions and stability. Herein we manufactured TiO2 nanoparticles supported by activated carbon (AC-TiO2) using a cost-effective sonochemical method. The band structures of the AC-TiO2 and TiO2 were modified from 3.2 to 3.1 eV, thus increasing the catalytic activity. The structural, optical and anatase crystal phase properties, with morphological confirmation, were studied by applying UV-DRS, PL, FESEM, XRD, along with HRTEM, respectively. The specific surface area, calculated by BET analysis, was found to be ~241 m2/gm and ~46 m2/gm for AC-TiO2 and TiO2. The degradation efficiency of the as-prepared nanocatalysts against the very toxic but rarely studied organic textile dye pollutant RO 84 was investigated and 97% efficiency were found for the AC-TiO2 as compared to pure TiO2, which is a highly appreciated finding in the catalytic dye degradation application domain. Such surface-modified nanocatalysts could be further implemented for the treatment of wastewaters/waste effluents released from chemical industries, laboratories and other sources.
Highlights
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results confirm that an anatase crystalline phase of TiO2 is formed after the heat treatment at 500 ◦ C in an open atmosphere environment
No further peaks were observed in the AC-TiO2 composites at the 24.6◦ location, which is assigned to the loaded AC showing diffracted peaks corresponding to the (002) crystalline plane
This could be because this characteristic peak of AC would be masked by the anatase crystal faces of TiO2 located at 25.3◦
Summary
Organic or inorganic molecule-based contaminants present in wastewater have been found with change into various chemical states, compositional ratios or other heterocyclic structures such as aniline intermediate species [1,2,3]. Dye components and their derivatives affect the health of the environment by contaminating water, soil, and air. There has been a motivation for researchers to design effective technologies to resolve such environmental issues, especially in the dye and textile industries. From this point of view, dye fabrication, textile research, and production plants are required to treat their effluents
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