4-chlorophenol removal from water using graphite and graphene oxides as photocatalysts

Abstract

Graphite and graphene oxides have been studied amply in the last decade, due to their diverse properties and possible applications. Recently, their functionality as photocatalytic materials in water splitting was reported. Research in these materials is increasing due to their band gap values around 1.8-4 eV, and therefore, these are comparable with other photocatalysts currently used in heterogeneous photocatalytic processes. Thus, this research reports the photocatalytic effectiveness of graphite oxide (GO) and graphene oxide (GEO) in the degradation of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) in water. Under the conditions defined for this research, 92 and 97% of 4-CP were degraded with GO and GEO respectively, also 97% of total organic carbon was removed. In addition, by-products of 4-CP that produce a yellow solution obtained only using photolysis are eliminated by photocatalyst process with GO and GEO. The degradation of 4-CP was monitored by UV-Vis spectroscopy, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). Thus, photocatalytic activity to remove 4-CP from water employing GO and GEO without doping is successfully showed, and therefore, a new gate in research for these materials is opened.

Comparison as Effective Photocatalyst or Adsorbent of Carbon Materials of One, Two, and Three Dimensions for the Removal of Reactive Red 2 in Water

“…The low and null photocatalytic activity of the different carbon materials could be enhanced by modifying the operating conditions as the UV lamp power, the distance between the UV lamp and the reactor, and the introduction of the lamp inside the reactor. This behavior has been observed recently (Bustos-Ramirez et al, 2015), although the pollutant molecule also seems to be important in this process.…”

A comparison investigation on photocatalytic activity performance and adsorption efficiency for the removal of cationic dye: Quantum dots vs. magnetic nanoparticles

“…Photocatalysis has received considerable attention in recent years as an alternate for treating water polluted with heavy metal ions, dyes and other pollutants [20]. In heterogeneous photocatalytic processes, the main reactions primarily take place on the surface of photocatalyst; thus, the effective adsorption of objective pollutants on the surface of photocatalyst was favorable for pollutant degradation by hydroxyl radicals, which was confirmed by electron spin resonance spintrapping technique [21][22][23].…”

Effective photoreduction of graphene oxide for photodegradation of volatile organic compounds

“…34 Substantial amounts of research on GO with different oxidation levels and band gaps have been carried out to explore its use as a photocatalyst in dye degradation, 28,[35][36][37] water splitting, [38][39][40] photoreduction of CO 2 , 41 and organic pollutant removal from water. 24,42 Moreover, GO has also been studied as a support to improve the adsorption capability of photocatalysts for pollutant removal. 43,44 Nevertheless, there is lack of studies on photoreduced GO as a photocatalyst for the photodegradation of VOCs.…”