Purification of water by bipolar pulsed discharge plasma combined with TiO2 catalysis

Abstract

In the process of water treatment by bipolar pulsed discharge plasma, there are not only the chemical effects such as the cold plasma, but also the physical effects such as the optical radiation. The energy of the optical radiation can be used by photocatalyst. Therefore, the effect of the photocatalyst to the degradation of the organic pollutant was investigated using a packed bed reactor by bipolar pulsed discharge in the air-liquid-solid mixture. The nanoparticle TiO2 photocatalyst was obtained using the sol-gel method and the typical dye solution Indigo Carmine was chosen as the degradation target to test the catalytic effect of the nanoparticle TiO2 photocatalyst. Experiment results proved that the degradation efficiency of the Indigo Carmine solution was increased by a certain extent with the TiO2 photocatalyst. It was totally decolorized within 3 minutes by bipolar pulsed discharge in the condition that the peak voltage was 30 kV and the air flow was 1.0 m3 h−1.