Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants in Purified Terephthalic Acid Wastewater with Activated Carbon Supported Titanium Dioxide

Activated carbon (AC) supported titanium dioxide (TiO₂ ) photocatalyst (TiO₂/AC) was prepared by two-step sol-gel process. Crystal structure, and surface morphology of TiO₂/AC were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherm measurements (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The results show that average crystal size of TiO₂ in 11% TiO₂/AC catalyst is 17.6 nm and special surface area of AC carrier is 887.11 m²/g. The photocatalyst has highly developed microporous structure, improves the dispersion degree of TiO₂, and decreases the size of aggregate. Meanwhile, TiO₂/AC was applied to degradate organic pollutants in purified terephthalic acid (PTA) wastewater. The obtained optimum conditions of photocatalytic degradation are as follows: the mass amount of TiO₂ loaded on AC is 11 %, the usage amount of catalyst is 7 g/ L wastewater and reaction time is 7 h. Under the optimum conditions, the COD removal ratio of wastewater is up to 64.30 %.