The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 12 No 1 (2008): 111 – 117

 

 

REMOVAL OF DYE BY IMMOBILISED PHOTOCATALYST LOADED ACTIVATED CARBON

 

Zulkarnain Zainal, Chang Sook Keng and Abdul Halim Abdullah

 

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia,

43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

 

Abstract

The ability of activated carbon to adsorb and titanium dioxide to photodegrade organic impurities from water bodies is well accepted. Combination of the two is expected to enhance the removal efficiency due to the  synergistic effect. This has enabled activated carbon to adsorb more and at the same time the lifespan of activated carbon is prolonged as the workload of removing organic pollutants is shared between activated carbon and titanium dioxide. Immobilisation is selected to avoid unnecessary filtering of adsorbent and photocatalyst. In this study, mixture of activated carbon and titanium  dioxide was immobilised on glass slides. Photodegradation and adsorption studies of Methylene Blue  solution  were conducted in the absence and presence of UV light. The removal efficiency of immobilised TiO₂/AC was found to be two times better than the removal by immobilised AC or immobilised TiO₂   alone. In 4 hours and with the  concentration  of 10 ppm, TiO₂   loaded activated carbon prepared from 1.5 g/15.0 mL suspension produced 99.50% dye removal.

 

Key words: Photodegradation; Adsorption; Methylene Blue; Titanium Dioxide; Activated Carbon

 

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