Heterogeneous photocatalytic degradation and hydrogen evolution from ethanolamine nuclear wastewater by a liquid phase plasma process

Abstract

Ethanolamine in a wastewater which is released from nuclear power plant was decomposed using a plasma discharged into the solution directly. Ni-TiO2 supported on mesoporous materials were employed as a photocatalyst. The photocatalytic reaction using the liquid phase plasma led to a degradation of ethanolamine with hydrogen evolution, simultaneously. The ethanolamine in the wastewater was degraded over 90% on the photocatalytic decomposition reaction by irradiation of liquid phase plasma. The rate of hydrogen evolution increased significantly with Ni incorporation on TiO2 because the bandgap was reduced with Ni incorporation on TiO2. Incorporating Ni on TiO2 nanocrystallites brought out an improvement of the ethanolamine degradation with hydrogen generation. The rate of hydrogen evolution in the ethanolamine-containing aqueous solution was increased in comparison with that in pure water. Additional hydrogen evolution by the photodecomposition of ethanolamine was attributed to the increasing H2 production.