Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye from aqueous solution using TiO2 doped Activated carbon

The effluent coming out from the textile, paper and food industries containing dye is strongly coloured and reveals very harmful effects on living beings. In order to reduce wastewater pollution, the degradation of dye into non-toxic form is desirable. The photo catalytic degradation of methylene blue is reported in the present study. The irradiation of aqueous solution of methylene blue dye in presence of photo catalyst and UV light was carried out in the batch photo reactor. Titanium dioxide TiO2 /CFAC was used as photo catalyst for the study. The rate of decolorisation was estimated from residual concentration spectrophotometrically. Effects of various operating parameters such as the irradiation time, initial pH and the amounts of catalyst on the degradation of the dyes were investigated. Results show that the degradation kinetics fitted well to pseudo second order rate law. The maximum decolorizing efficiency occurred in less than 50min with 50mg of TiO2 /CFAC catalyst dose.