Investigation and Optimization of Removal of Agricultural Pollutant (Paraquat) using Modified TiO2/La,S Photocatalyst

Increasing agricultural waste especially pesticides in runoff, water surface and subsurface as well as environmental risks posed by these contaminants has led to its removal from industrial effluents, urban and rural waste water are particular importance. Occurrence of pesticides in wastewater and environmental hazards resulting from its, has created deep concerns about the public health. Paraquat is the most widely used herbicides in Iran and the world. Due to human activities, constant amount of this herbicide is being increasing in the water. Parkinson's disease is the major effect of this pollutant. In recent years, the use of advanced oxidation processes on the basis of strong oxidizing species has received much attention In order to completely remove the dangerous and complex compounds. Among the advanced oxidation methods, Photocatalytic processes have high efficiency in the degradation of various organic materials to biodegradable matter, carbon dioxide and water. In this study, first, the process of photocatalytic has been reviewed. Then, the degradation of paraquat under the visible light in the presence of La,S-TiO2 synthesized Nanophotocatalyst were done. Moreover, for the first time, the effect of operating parameters, including the catalyst dose, H2O2 amount and volume of contamination on the photocatalytic removal efficiency were investigated and evaluated. The results show that the use of H2O2 of 2mL, catalytic dose of 100 mg and volume of contamination of 50 mL, 71.8 % of the Paraquat “Gramoxone” was removed over four hours under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, the results show that the modified synthesized photocatalysis (La,S-TiO2) has much higher photocatalytic activity than undoped TiO2 for the degradation of paraquat at the optimum point.