PHEN0L DEGRADATION USING ADVANCED OXIDATION PROCESS EMPLOYING TITANIA NANOPARTICLES

Abstract

Pure and slver doped Titanium dioxide (Ti02) nanoparticles prepared by calcination and Liquid Impregnation (LI) methods were characterized using the X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis. XRD analysis exhibited that the crystallite size of Ti02 was 27nm 42nm while the crystallite size of Ag-Ti02 was 1 1.27nm - 42.52nm. The photocatalytic activity of pure Ti02 and silver doped Ti02 was compared by evaluating the photocatalytic degradation ofp-nitrophenol as a model compound. Ag-Ti02 nanoparticles exhibited better results (98% degradation) as compared to pure Ti02 nano particles (83% degradation), in I hour for p-nitrophenol. The positive effect of silver on the photoactivity of Ti02 for the degradation of p-nitrophenol, may be associated with its increased ability to trap electrons as this reduces the recombination of light generated electron-hole pairs at the Ti02 surface. Ag-Ti02 was further used to study the photocatalytic degradation of 2,4-dichlorphenol (99% degradation), 2,5-dichlorophenol (98% degradation), and 2,4,6- trichlorophenol (96% degradation) in I hour.