Abstract
Hydrogels have excellent properties that make them ideally suited as host matrices for the immobilization of photoreactive materials such as TiO2 nanoparticles that serve as catalysts in the photodegradation of organic dyes, which is of great importance in practical water pollution treatment applications. However, the application of hydrogels for this purpose remains poorly studied. The present study addresses this issue by developing two types of hydrogels based on poly(methyl acrylate) and succinamide acid with embedded TiO2 nanoparticles for use as photocatalysts in the photodegradation of organic dyes. The results of the analysis demonstrate that the TiO2 nanoparticles are distributed uniformly in the hydrogel matrices, and the hydrogels maintain their original structures after use. The photodegradation efficiencies of the developed TiO2-hydrogels are demonstrated to be reasonably close to that of freely distributed TiO2 nanoparticles in solution for four different organic dyes. In addition, the results of degradation-regeneration cycling tests demonstrate that immobilizing the TiO2 nanoparticles into the hydrogels greatly reduces their loss during utilization, and the photocatalysts can be easily reused. In fact, the two TiO2-hydrogels retain reasonably high photocatalytic degradation performance after four degradation-regeneration cycles.
Highlights
Water is among the most essential substances for the existence of life on earth
Among these presently available methods, photocatalytic degradation is promising owing to its potential environmental friendliness, and it has been demonstrated to realize the efficient degradation of various organic pollutants in wastewater treatment applications [5,6,7]
The use of hydrogels for photocatalyst immobilization in photocatalytic wastewater treatment applications remains poorly studied. This issue is addressed in the present work by developing two types of hydrogels based on poly (PMA) and succinamide acid (SAA) with embedded TiO2 nanoparticles for use as photocatalysts in the photodegradation of four different organic dyes, including methyl orange (MO), methylene blue, rhodamine B (RhB), and bright green
Summary
Water is among the most essential substances for the existence of life on earth. the wastewater discharged from factories and laboratories has caused serious water pollution in recent years [1,2,3]. The complete separation of relatively low-density catalysts, such as graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3 N4 ) and aerogel photocatalysts, is difficult to achieve even at high rotational speeds of 10,000 rpm While this issue is commonly addressed by passing solid-liquid mixtures through disposable syringe filters, this results in catalyst loss, which is unacceptable for cyclic degradation-regeneration performance testing due to the detrimental effect on measurement accuracy caused by the progressively decreasing catalyst concentration. The use of hydrogels for photocatalyst immobilization in photocatalytic wastewater treatment applications remains poorly studied This issue is addressed in the present work by developing two types of hydrogels based on poly (methyl acrylate) (PMA) and succinamide acid (SAA) with embedded TiO2 nanoparticles for use as photocatalysts in the photodegradation of four different organic dyes, including MO, methylene blue, RhB, and bright green. The proposed strategy of physically immobilizing TiO2 nanoparticles in hydrogels may promote the development of photocatalytic devices suitable for practical large-scale applications
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
