Reforming of Rice Ash Waste by Incorporated Nanotitania in Silica Framework for Photo‐catalytic Treatment of Wastewater

Abstract

The nano‐composites based on the burnt rice straw waste, reformed by nano‐TiO2 and copper phthalocyanine (CuPc), namely, RSA‐TiO2, RSA‐CuPc, and RSA‐TiO2‐CuPc were prepared by a mechano‐chemical method. The as‐prepared composite systems were characterized by adopting FE‐SEM, TEM, XRD, FTIR, SBET, and optical techniques. Their photo‐catalytic performance in the degradation of methylene blue dye was evaluated under visible light irradiation. The co‐existence of the two components in RSA, SiO2 and organic carbon, plus the inherently intimate contact between nano‐TiO2 and CuPc could improve the photo‐degradation of MB dye. The complete degradation of MB dye was achieved by using RSA‐TiO2 (50) nano‐composite and the time is taken for 50% degradation of a dye is 53 min under visible light radiation. The kinetic study revealed that photo‐degradation of MB follows a pseudo‐first‐order reaction mechanism, where the kinetic rate constant was 0.013 min−1.