Abstract

Degradation of yellow bright anionic dye under ultraviolet radiation was studied using attapulgite (ATT) as a support in the immobilization of the photocatalyst semiconductor, titanium dioxide, TiO2. The photocatalytic performance of the corresponding catalyst was evaluated using the 1.0x10-4 mol L-1 concentration of the dye. The samples were irradiated with UV light for 120 minutes. The kinetics were monitored by UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The spectra absorption showed that the increased amount of photoactive material in the reaction system maximizes the efficiency of the photocatalytic process.

The presence of organic pollutants, which cannot be eliminated by conventional processes of primary and secondary treatment, can be problematic. Photocatalytic processes offer an efficient breakdown of organic pollutants into non-toxic compounds such as CO2 and H2O. This paper proposes the use of the titanium dioxide embedded in palygorskite as a photoactive material in the degradation of cationic dye, Coomassie Brilliant Blue. The system was irradiated using UV light for a maximum time of 120 minutes. The concentration of the dye used was 1.0x10-4 mol L-1 in 0.5 g L-1 of the photoactive material. The kinetics of the system was monitored by UV-Vis spectrophotometry. In 120 minutes of radiation, the process of photocatalysis reduced the initial concentration of the Coomassie Brilliant Blue dye in half.

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