Photo-Oxidation of Ammonia to Molecular Nitrogen in Water under UV, Vis and Sunlight Irradiation

Titanium dioxide-based photocatalysts have been used to perform the photo-oxidation of ammonium/ammonia molecular nitrogen. Different light sources were employed, i.e., UV, LED visible and natural sunlight, their performance was compared in order understand which setup most efficient. It found that under selected conditions, lamp, combination with silver-promoted TiO2, able push conversion ammonium toward 48% after 4 h reaction time. On other hand, a more powerful UV lower achieved, ca. 40%. Natural sunlight same conditions attained than 38% conversion, but fluctuation remain very critical issue for real exploitation water treatment.