Bismuth Oxide Carbonate Structures Synthesized by Microwave—Assisted Solvothermal Approach and Its Use as Catalyst for the Degradation of Azo Dye in a Solution

Abstract

Because the textile industry wastewater is polluted with azo dyes, and in order to improve a process of wastewater remediation, the synthesized sample was evaluated in the photocatalysis of methylene blue and compared with commercial Bi 2 O 3 and anatase TiO 2 . Structures of bismuth oxide carbonate (Bi 2 O 2 CO 3 ) were successfully synthesized using a solution at 0.03 M concentration of sodium bismuthate as precursor and ethylene glycol as dissolvent by solvothermal microwave-assisted approach. The semiconductor catalyst samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XDR), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis (BET). The application of the synthesized sample as catalyst, obtained a 68% of degradation. This result is better than the commercial Bi 2 O 3 and close to the anatase TiO 2 degradation. This sample shows a variation in the formula (with the presence of carbonates) but also shows an acceptable degradation percentage according to TiO 2 results, making Bi 2 O 2 CO 3 a possible substitute of TiO 2 .

Cytotoxic and Genotoxic Effects of Some Azo Dyes in Allium cepa Root Tip Cells

“…Since azo dyes are used extensively in painting processes in many industrial applications, they cause pollution of water sources as industrial waste [11]. It is estimated that more than half of the paint contamination is caused by azo dyes.…”