Removal of cationic Rhodamine-B dye using nano-titania with anatase crystalline structure and kinetic analysis of the photocatalytic reaction

Abstract

Heterogeneous photocatalytic removal of Rhodamine-B (RhB) dye from liquid phase was done using anatase-phase nanocrystalline TiO2 synthesized via a modified sol-gel process. The anatase-phase nanocrystalline TiO2 was characterized using various analytical techniques including XRD, UV-vis DRS, PL, and FTIR to investigate its phase composition and structure, nanocrystalline size, band gap energy, photoluminescence and surface properties of the prepared systems. The photocatalytic discoloration efficiency of anatase-phase nanocrystalline titania was investigated by monitoring the decomposition of RhB dye as target compounds in an aqueous solution. The results showed that the as-prepared anatase-phase nanocrystalline TiO2 was excellent for degradation of RhB molecule, and the crystallite size, excitonic PL and surface hydroxyl content have intimate relationship with the decomposition efficiency of RhB. The reaction mechanism was proposed and the results demonstrate that the role of direct photolysis on RhB dye degradation can be neglected. Meanwhile, the Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model describes the photodecay date of RhB in consistent with a first order powder law and thus photocatalytic oxidation reaction followed a pseudo-first-order kinetics.