Study of UV assisted photocatalytic degradation of organic dye

Abstract

We report the experimental investigation of ultraviolet (UV) light assisted degradation process of organic dye (methylene blue) via. advanced oxidation process (AOP). In the study, the AOPs were controlled in three different manners such as, UV/TiO2, UV/H2O2 and UV/ TiO2/H2O2. Under the optimal conditions of UV/ TiO2/H2O2 process, 95% photodegradation of 10 ppm methylene blue could be achieved in 20 min of UV exposure. The UV/ TiO2/H2O2 process shows the better degradation efficiency than their individual counterparts. The UV/ TiO2/H2O2 process is found to be 4 and 7 times faster than UV/TiO2 and UV/H2O2 alone, respectively. The synergic effect in the photodegradation was observed when both TiO2 and H2O2 are combined to act as a photocatalyst. The degradation kinetics of all the three manners was appeared to follow an apparent pseudo first order rate kinetics. The study suggests that UV/ TiO2/H2O2 based AOP is much more effective than UV/TiO2 and UV/H2O2 based AOPs.