Commercially available titanium dioxides from two different companies, one from Fluka, Switzerland (designated as n-TiO2) and another from Merck, Germany (designated as p-TiO2) were used for the removal of Remazol Black B (RBB) from aqueous solution. The experimental results reveal that p-TiO2 acts as an adsorbent as well as a photocatalyst owing to porous surface morphology, whereas n-TiO2 does not demonstrate adsorption characteristics due to its non-porous and granular surface morphology. Adsorption of RBB on p-TiO2 was found to occur rapidly and more than 40% dye was adsorbed within 5 minutes. Under irradiation of sunlight and UV-light, the photocatalytic activities of the p-TiO2 and n-TiO2 were also examined, and the results manifest the higher degradation efficiency of the p-TiO2 than n-TiO2. Different experimental parameters such as catalyst loading, pH, and concentration of solution have been varied to search optimum conditions. Photodegradation efficiency was also found higher under sunlight irradiation than UV-light.
Keywords: Adsorption, Kinetics, Langmuir-Hinshelwood, Photodegradation, Remazol Black
