Preparation and application of nano-TiO sub(2) catalyst in dye electrochemical treatment

• Published in: Water S. A. 2006-04, Vol.32 (2), p.205-209
• Main Authors: Lei, Yangming, Shen, Zhemin, Chen, Xuejun, Jia, Jinpin, Wang, Wenhua
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0378-4738

This paper reports results of an investigation into the removal of ARB (Acid Red B) dye in an electrochemical oxidation reactor with semi-conductor suspended in the electrolyte. TiO sub(2) nano-powders spiked with various elements, including Si, Co, Zn, La, Ag, Ce, W and Bi, were prepared by sol-gel method to improve colour removal efficiency. Through the L sub(16)(4 super(4)) orthogonal experiment, the optimised preparation conditions of nano-TiO sub(2) catalyst were obtained, namely prepared at 400 degree C and spiked with 10% Co(in molar ratio). The XRD (X-ray diffraction) analysis indicated that TiO sub(2) prepared at 400 degree C occurred predominantly in the anatase crystalline form and the particle size was below 20 nm. The BET (Brunauer, Emmet and Teller) surface area was 69.2m super(2)/g. The decolourisation efficiency using Co (10%)/TiO sub(2) as catalyst was 33.1% and increased by 5.7% (about 1.21 times) compared with the colour removal without catalyst. The DRS (diffuse reflectance spectroscopy) demonstrated that the improvement of colour removal of Co(10%)/TiO sub(2) compared with pure TiO sub(2) was probably due to its better light absorption and photocatalytic activity in the visible region.