Photocatalytic degradation of nitrobenzene wastewater with H3PW12O40/TiO2

In order to treat a mass of industrial wastewater nitrobenzene, a photocatalytic degradation method was studied in this paper. Phosphotungstic acid(H₃PW₁₂O₄₀) and titanium dioxide(TiO₂) were prepared, and a new-style catalyst H₃PW₁₂O₄₀ supported on TiO₂(H₃PW₁₂O₄₀/TiO₂) was prepared by the method of impregnation. We characterized them using X-Ray and FT-IR. The results proved that H₃PW₁₂O₄₀ possessed classical Keggin structure, TiO₂ was anatase and H₃PW₁₂O₄₀ can keep the Keggin structure on the TiO₂. The effects of photocatalytic degradation of nitrobenzene wastewater under visible light in the presence of H₃PW₁₂O₄₀/TiO₂ were investigated in detail. The research results revealed that reaction time, catalyst dosage, nitrobenzene original concentration were the main effects, and the biggest degradation of nitrobenzene wastewater was 94.1% at the optimum condition. The exhibited photocatalytic activity of the novel photocatalyst provided a promising solution for the degradation of nitrobenzene water contaminants.