Degradation of C. I. Basic Blue 41 Using Modified TiO2 Nanocomposite in a Rectangular Semibatch Photoreactor

The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of operational parameters on the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of a solution containing C. I. Basic Blue 41 in a recirculated rectangular photoreactor (irradiated with a UV light TiO2 nano composite film was prepared via sol-gel dip coating method. The films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and coating thickness gauge. Initial concentration of Basic Blue 41 (10-50 mg L-1), flow rate (6-15 L h-1) and temperature (20-40 ?C) were the variables that mostly influenced the degradation efficiency. The results showed that the removal efficiency decreases by increasing the initial concentration and flow rate, however it increases when the temperature increases. To monitor the mineralization of Basic Blue 41, chemical oxygen demand measurements and UV-Vis analyses changes were carried out during the UV/TiO2 process. The results indicated 92.943% mineralization of 25 mg L-1 dye after 2h of UV irradiation.