Photocatalytic Decoloration of Methyl Orange by TiO 2 in Slurry

Abstract

The problem of water depollution is gaining importance, especially as regulatory standards concerning drinking water are increasingly strict. The different industries (textile industries) generate chemically stable pollutants such as methyl orange which make their degradation difficult. It is therefore necessary to find new, more effective techniques for the treatment of these discharges. Among the different solutions proposed to deal with this problem, we find advanced oxidation processes (POAs) which are clean and promising technologies in the field of wastewater depollution. In this regard, heterogeneous photocatalysis was used in an aqueous suspension of titanium oxide (TiO 2 ) using a ultraviolet (UV) lamp as artificial radiation. The objective of this work is to study the influence of some operating parameters such as: the catalyst mass, the initial pollutant concentration, the volume of the solution and the pH of the solution, were examined. The results obtained showed that this photocatalyst made it possible to degrade 99.85% of the initial concentration of methyl orange (10 ppm), after 240 min of irradiation with an optimal mass of 0.50 g of TiO 2 for a volume of 200 mL of methyl orange solution at pH = 3.0.