TiO2/anthill clay as a heterogeneous catalyst for solar photocatalytic degradation of textile wastewater: Catalyst characterization and optimization studies

Abstract

This present study aims at revealing the activity of TiO2–anthill clay in photocatalytic degradation of textile effluent. It also aims to investigate the effects of parameters affecting the photocatalytic degradation process such as catalyst dose (0.5–25 wt.%), reaction time (1–3 h) and solution pH (2–10) through central composite design. The synthesized photocatalyst was characterized using BET, SEM, EDX, FTIR, and XRF techniques. The results obtained from the optimization studies revealed that there were good agreements between the predicted and observed values of photocatalytic degradation efficiency. The maximum decolorization efficiency of 70.92% was obtained under the optimum experimental conditions of 2.50 wt.% catalyst dose, 1.07 h reaction time, and dye solution pH of 2.0. The TiO2-anthill photocatalyst was found to be efficient for complete decolorization of dye solution as it was able to be reused for up to four cycles.