Reforming of Rice Ash Waste by Incorporated Nanotitania in Silica Framework for Photo-Catalytic Treatment of Wastewater

Abstract

Objective: 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. 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. Results: 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. Conclusion: The kinetic study revealed that photo-degradation of MB follows pseudo-first-order reaction mechanism, where the kinetic rate constant was 0.013 min-1.