UV light Induced Degradation of Methylene Blue using various Photocatalysts

Abstract

The present study involves the photocatalytic degradation of Methylene Blue (MeB) employing heterogeneous photocatalytic process with TiO₂ and ZnO. An attempt has been made to study the effect of process parameters viz., amount of catalyst, concentration of dye and pH on photocatalytic degradation of MeB. The experiments were carried out by irradiating the aqueous solutions of dyes containing photocatalysts under UV light. Similar experiments were carried out by varying pH (2-10), amount of catalyst (0.25 – 2.0 g/L) and initial concentration of dye (5-200 mg/L). The experimental results indicate that the maximum decolorization of dyes occurred with ZnO catalyst and at basic pH.