Degradation of crystal violet over heterogeneous TiO2-based catalysts: The effect of process parameters

Marija Vasic, Marjan Randjelovic, Milan Momcilovic, Branko Matovic, Aleksandra Zarubica
2016 Processing and Application of Ceramics  
In this study, modified sol-gel method was employed to synthesize the pure and Zr-doped titania catalysts. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method was applied to determine porosity, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used to study crystal structure, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate morphology and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to examine surface properties/total acidity of the obtained catalysts samples. Photocatalytic activity was tested in the
more » ... eaction of crystal violet (CV) dye decolourization/degradation under UV light irradiation. The effects of several photocatalysis operational parameters were considered, such as catalyst dosage, initial dye concentrations, duration of UV irradiation treatment, as well as catalysts calcination temperatures and dopant amounts. The obtained results indicated faster dye decolourization/degradation with the increase of the catalyst dosage and the decrease of initial CV concentrations. The Zr-doping affects photocatalytic properties, i.e. CV decolourization/degradation of the prepared catalytic materials. Thus, addition of 5 wt.% of ZrO 2 to titania increases photocatalytic effect for ∼15% and addition of 10 wt.% of ZrO 2 improves the photocatalytic efficiency of titania for nearly 30%.
doi:10.2298/pac1603189v fatcat:3nq7rkoxnvg5tj7idtclufal5q