Environmental pollution from human and industrial activities has received much attention as it adversely affects human health and bio-diversity. In this work we report efficient visible light photocatalytic degradation of phenol using supported zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods and explore the role of surface defects in ZnO on the visible light photocatalytic activity. ZnO nanorods were synthesized on ...

A novel cylindrical multi-column photocatalytic reactor (CMCPR) has been developed and successfully applied for the degradation of methyl orange (MO), amoxicillin (AMX) and 3-chlorophenol (3-CP) in water. Due to its higher adsorption capacity and simpler molecular structure, 3-CP compared with MO and AMX obtained the highest photodegradation (100%) and mineralization (78.1%) after 300-min photo...

Gd(2)InSbO(7) and Gd(2)FeSbO(7) were synthesized first, and their structural and photocatalytic properties were studied. The lattice parameters and the band gaps for Gd(2)InSbO(7) and Gd(2)FeSbO(7) were 10.449546 Å, 10.276026 Å, 2.897 eV and 2.151 eV. The photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B was performed with Gd(2)InSbO(7) and Gd(2)FeSbO(7) under visible light irradiation. Gd(2)InSbO(7) a...

In recent years, semiconductor photocatalytic process has shown a great potential as a low-cost, environmental friendly and sustainable treatment technology to align with the "zero" waste scheme in the water/wastewater industry. The ability of this advanced oxidation technology has been widely demonstrated to remove persistent organic compounds and microorganisms in water. At present, the main ...

In this study, an ultrasound-aided hydrothermal-impregnation method was used to synthesize three-dimensional (3D) urchin-like CdS-TiO2 nanostructures (UCTs) with variable CdS content. The photocatalytic efficiencies (for degrading limonene and toluene vapor) of UCTs synthesized using the ultrasound-aided process were greater than those of UCTs fabricated without ultrasound treatment. In additio...

In recent years, photocatalytico oxidation processes with ultra violet (UV) radiation and semiconductor photocatalyst like titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) have gained immense research interest as an effective wastewater purification method because of its efficacy in decomposing and mineralising the hazardous organic pollutants as well as the opportunity of utilizing the solar UV an...

The research in this Thesis has been mainly performed at the research group Trataguas, from the Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Química Física of the Universidad de Extremadura. It is a part of an extensive research program on the elimination of emerging contaminants (ECs) in water through the application of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), being developed by the Trataguas group and fi...

Textile industries discharge a large quantity of colored wastewater which is harmful to the ecosystem. In this study, two kinds of dyes were investigated: the mono azo Acid Orange 7 (AO7) and diazo Reactive Green 19 (RG19). The photocatalytic degradation of single (AO7, RG19) azo dye and binary (AO7 and RG19 mixture) azo dye aqueous solutions was photocatalyzed by commercial titanium dioxide (T...

A novel photocatalyst ZnBiErO₄ was firstly synthesized by solid-state reaction method and its structural and photocatalytic properties were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance. The results demonstrated that ZnBiErO₄ crystallized with tetragonal crystal structure with space group I41/A. The lattice parameter...