An Experimental Study of Photocatalytic Degradation of Congo Red Using Polymer Nanocomposite Films

Eco-friendly polymer nanocomposite films were synthesized using biodegradable polymers of chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol as polymeric matrices and carbon black nanoparticles as the reinforcement. These films were applied to study their applicability to industrial wastewater purification as a photoca...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mashael Nasser Alshabanat, Murefah M. AL-Anazy
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-01-01
Series:Journal of Chemistry
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/9651850
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Eco-friendly polymer nanocomposite films were synthesized using biodegradable polymers of chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol as polymeric matrices and carbon black nanoparticles as the reinforcement. These films were applied to study their applicability to industrial wastewater purification as a photocatalyst for degradation of Congo red as a target pollutant and to study the effect of the polymeric matrix types of the films on their performance as a semiconductor photocatalyst. Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to characterize the films. Visible light photocatalytic degradation of Congo red as a pollutant under various operational conditions of pH, dye concentration, contact time, and light intensity was performed. Photocatalytic results revealed that the polymeric substrate type does not play a major role in the photodegradation of the dye, and the best operational conditions were at a pH of 6 and a dye solution concentration of 8 mg/L.
ISSN:2090-9063
2090-9071