Photocatalytic Degradation of Acid Yellow 36 Using Titanium Dioxide Nanocomposites Doped by Zirconium

In this research, TiO2-Zr nano-photocatalyst was firstly developed with the aim of improving the photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide via sol-gel method. The recovery of catalysts in acidic, alkaline and thermal conditions was also studied.

This research was done on a laboratory scale. The structures and properties were recognized with (BET), (FT-IR), (FE-SEM), and (XRD) methods and the band gap value of the synthesized nano photocatalyst found to 3 eV with DRS. Also, the effect of color concentration, soluble pH, catalyst powder concentration and contact time was kept constant in order to economically effect on the efficacy of dyeing. Then, photocatalytic activity was evaluated for degradation of organic pollution days Acid yellow 36 in aqueous solution specimen by the UV-Vis spectrophotometer and total organic carbon (TOC).

Finally, after obtaining the optimum conditions for degradation efficiency, it was compared with titanium dioxide photocatalyst, which revealed that increase in efficiency due to changes in the band gap and, as a final point, shows the power of photocatalytic activity of synthetic doped material in degradation organic environmental pollutants.

It founded that doping Zr ions to the TiO2 lattice causes decreasing band gap value, so As a result, the necessary energy to stimulate the electrons from the valence band reduced in results wavelength shift up. The photocatalytic activity has a significant impact on color reduction and has a high potential for the decolorization organic dye wastewater.