Design of economic photocatalytic system with low energy consumption, and high quantum yield, for the degradation of acid red 37 textile dye

Abstract This work aims to study the photocatalytic degradation of the textile dye pollutant, Acid Red 37, under UV irradiation in the bench scale batch photoreactor, designing an optimum system of nanometal oxides TiO2, ZnO and their mixtures with different weight ratios. The photocatalysts were synthesized and fully characterized by XRD, EDS and TEM. The photocatalytic degradation process was investigated as a function of pH, concentration of the dye pollutant and different ratios of the photocatalytic mixtures. Furthermore, the effect of adding electron scavengers; H2O2, Na2S2O8 and NaIO4 was studied. The best photodegradation was observed under UV irradiation upon adding a ratio of (3:1) (TiO2: ZnO) at pH = 6.5 when the textile dye concentration is 1.0 × 10-4 mol/L. The efficiency of the studied photocatalytic degradation systems can be arranged in the order: UV/ZnO