Degradation of UV-filter Benzophenon-3 in aqueous solution using TiO2 coated on quartz tubes

Abstract

Background Benzophenone-3 (BP-3), one of the emerging pollutants, is commercially synthesized as UV filter used in cosmetics and other personal care products and its occurrence in the aquatic environment has widely been reported. The goal of this study was to enhance an AOP method for degradation of UV filter Benzophenone-3 in aqueous solutions . Method In this study, sol-gel method was applied to synthesis TiO 2 nanoparticles. Subsequently, the nanoparticles were successfully coated on quartz tubes. The synthesized catalyst was characterized using XRD, FE-SEM and EDX analysis. Then, the efficiency of photocatalytic process using TiO 2 coated quartz tubes for BP-3 degradation from synthetic and real aqueous solution was assessed. Result The optimum contact time and solution pH for the highest BP-3 degradation in the synthetic solution were found at 15 min and 10, respectively. The maximum degradation (98%) of BP-3 by photocatalytic process was observed at 1 mg/L initial BP-3 concentration using 225 cm 2 of catalyst surface area. Among the three applied kinetic models, the experimental data were found to follow the first-order equation more closely with the rate constant of 0.2, 0.048 and 0.035 1/min for 1, 3 and 5 mg/L of initial BP-3 concentration, respectively. In order to investigate the potential of this process for real effluent, the treatment of swimming pool water and wastewater treatment plant was examined and BP-3 degradation close to 88% and 32.1 was achieved, respectively. Conclusion Based on the obtained data, the photocatalytic process could successfully be applied for water treatment in swimming pools and other effluent containing BP-3 with low turbidity. The advantage of this study is that the synthesized catalyst can be used repeatedly needless to remove catalyst from the treated solution. In addition, AOP s can effectively eliminate organic compounds in aqueous phase, rather than transferring pollutants into another phase. The limitation of this study is that in solution with high turbidity photocatalytic degradation can be hampered and pre- treatment is needed to reduce turbidity.

Synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic application of Ag-doped Fe-ZSM-5@TiO2 nanocomposite for degradation of reactive red 195 (RR 195) in aqueous environment under sunlight irradiation

“…Therefore, both sunlight and photocatalyst are needed for effective removal of RR195. This result is in agreement with previous reports [30,31,53].…”

Stability and Removal of Benzophenone-Type UV Filters from Water Matrices by Advanced Oxidation Processes

“…Moradi [ 71 ] used TiO 2 nanoparticles, synthesized using thesol-gel method, coated on quartz tubes and applied in the photocatalytic experiment for degradation of BP-3. Details about photocatalytic experiments are presented in Table 3 .…”

“…The same effect on degradation rate is obtained by increasing the catalyst surface area. According to Moradi [ 71 ], when the surface area of the catalyst increased from 45 to 225 cm 2 , the degradation efficiency increased from 35.7% to 98%. The authors explained this effect by the fact that increasing the catalyst surface area leads to an increase in the quantity of TiO 2 , the number of active sites, and more UV photons can be absorbed by the surface of the catalyst [ 74 ].…”

“…The photocatalytic activity was, generally, enhanced at lower initial concentrations of BP-4 [ 73 ] and BP-3 [ 74 ]. Moradi [ 71 ] demonstrated that by increasing the initial concentration of BP-3 from 1 to 5 mg/L, the degradation efficiency decreases from 98% to 47%. This can be a consequence of catalyst-surface occupation by a higher concentration of pollutants leading to a lack of active sites on the surface of the catalyst.…”

“…Moradi [ 71 ] found that with the increase in pH from 3 to 10 photodegradation efficacy of the BP-3 increased from 17% to 82%. The authors explained this may be caused by generating more •OH ions at the higher pH.…”