Synthesis and Characterization of Titanium Dioxide Immobilized Water Hyacinth based Activated Carbon Catalyst for Methylene Blue Removal
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Date
2021-08
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Several treatment methods are available to remove pollutant dyes from textile wastewater streams. Adsorption of pollutant dyes by activated carbon (AC) is one of the technically feasible and cost-effective methods. Incorporating photocatalytic materials such as TiO2 in AC can improve removal efficiency by imparting photodegradation besides adsorption. In this study, titanium dioxide-immobilized water hyacinth-based activated carbon catalyst (TiO2/WHAcc) was used to remove Methylene blue (MB) from artificially constituted wastewater. The AC extracted from lignocellulosic biomass was utilized to adsorb MB and further impregnation of AC with TiO2 enhanced the MB removal efficiency. The source of lignocellulosic biomass in this work was water hyacinth biomass (WHB). Sol-gel method was employed to synthesize TiO2/WHAcc. The WHAC and TiO2/WHAcc were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis, and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) pore size and volume analysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy equipped with Energy Dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (FE-SEM with EDX), and proximate analyses. In addition, the effect of photocatalytic parameters was investigated using Box-Behnken Design (BBD) response surface methodology. Effects of initial MB dye concentration, catalyst dose, and contact time on percentage removal of MB were studied. The maximum MB removal efficiency of 91.05 % was recorded at 0.092 g adsorbent dosage in 100 ml MB dye solution, 24.58 min contact time, and a MB dye concentration of 20.00 mg L-1. The comparison of TiO2/WHAcc and WHAC on the removal of MB revealed that the incorporation of TiO2 in the WHAC enhances the MB removal efficiency and can be a good adsorbent for the removal of MB from wastewater streams.
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Keywords
Activated carbon, Methylene blue, Photocatalytic degradation, Titanium dioxide, Water hyacinth