MoS2/N-TiO2/Ti mesh plate for visible-light photocatalytic ozonation of naproxen and industrial wastewater: comparative studies and artificial neural network modeling.

Abstract

This paper presents the results of visible-light assistedphotocatalyticozonation for the degradation of naproxen as a model pharmaceutical pollutant from water using MoS2/N-TiO2 immobilized on a titanium mesh plate in addition to treatment of a real industrial wastewater. The batch studies were performed for naproxen degradation by varying the reaction variables such as ozone flow rate, initial pH and pollutant concertation. It was observed that almost 90% degradation was achieved at pH = 4, ozone flow rate = 3 L min-1 and initial naproxen concentration = 5mg L-1. The catalyst exhibited constant activity even after seven successive cycles. Comparative studies among sorption, ozonation, photocatalysis, catalytic ozonation and photocatalyticozonation revealed that the later process had the highest degradation of pollutant. Moreover, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to simulate the performance of visible-light photocatalytic ozonation in naproxen degradation. The developed ANN model could estimate the visible-light photocatalytic ozonation process under the different experimental conditions. Finally, the applicability of the photocatalyticozonation was successfully approved for industrial wastewater treatment. The results showed that the COD removalefficiency reached 65% within 150min. HIGHLIGHTS: • MoS2/N-TiO2/Ti wassynthesized by the quick electrophoretic deposition method. • The catalyst showed good ability in naproxen degradation via visible-light photocatalytic ozonation. • A three-layer artificial neural network model was developed to predict the naproxen degradation. • Naproxen degradation efficiency through the photocatalytic ozonation was higher than the individual methods. • COD of real wastewater was reduced significantly after thevisible-light photocatalytic ozonation process.