No abstract

We report the simple and effective method for enhancing the photocatalytic properties of Degussa P25 TiO2 by low frequency ultrasonication. The improvement in the crystallinity of ultrasonicated TiO2 was confirmed by the X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy studies. Further, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was utilized to study the changes in chemical nature and band edge due to the effect of ultrasonication and H2O2 solvent. The transmission electron microscope (TEM) was used to analysis the surface distortion. The Moire fringes in TEM were examined to understand the partial transformation of amorphous to crystalline anatase structure and overlapping of rutile over anatase crystal. The photocatalytic results indicated improvement in the degradation of methylene blue dye. The degradation efficiency was estimated to be 86% for ultrasonicated TiO2, which is higher as compared to 40% of P25. The rate constant values revealed four times superior degradation property of ultrasonicated TiO2. The improvement in the photocatalytic efficiency was correlated to the formation of rutile/anatase TiO2 aggregation and its consequences on electron-hole recombination.

We report an economical and eco-friendly way to remove the heavy metal pollutant using modified clay. The modification of clay was done by calcining the natural clay from Kyushu region in Japan. Further, the removal efficiency for various pH and contact time was evaluated. The morphology of the clays was studied using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The structural and chemical analyses of modified clay were done by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and Energy dispersion analysis (EDAX) to understand the properties related to the removal of heavy metal pollutant. Further, we studied the absorption efficiency of clay for various pH and contacting time using Ni polluted water. The modified clays show better removal efficiency for all pH with different saturation time. The adsorption follows pseudo-second order kinetics and the adsorption capacity of modified clay is 1.5 times larger than that of natural clay. The increase in the adsorption efficiency of modified clay was correlated to the increase in hematite phase along with increase in surface area due to surface morphological changes.

No abstract

No abstract