Effect of Photocatalysts Preparation Methods and Light Source on Orange II Photocatalytic Degradation

The objective of the present work was to synthesize
10 wt % metal doped TiO2 (Degussa P-25) photocatalysts
using three methods: complex precipitation (CP), depositionprecipitation
(DP) and wet impregnation (WI) methods and to
evaluate their performance for a model azo dye, Orange II.
The raw photocatalysts were activated by calcination at three
different temperatures (180°C, 200°C and 300°C) for 1 hour
duration. Photocatalytic degradation for 50 ppm orange II was
studied at pH 6.8 under the irradiation of a UV light and
visible light. The extent of dye degradation was determined
using UV-vis Spectrophotometery. On the basis of results it
was observed that visible light has better effect for dye removal
compared to UV light and WI photocatalysts showed the best
decolorization results with 100% Orange II removal for
photocatalysts calcined at 1800C and 2000C while 98.5% for
3000C calcination temperature. Selected photocatalysts were
characterized using Powder X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fieldemission
Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Xray
(FESEM- EDX) and Diffuse Reflectance UV visible
spectroscopy (DRUV vis).