Abstract
Development of a photocatalyst with high efficiency and separability is still a challenging task in the field of wastewater treatment. In this study, new magnetic separable C/TiO2/Ni composite as a photocatalyst was prepared by a facile pyrolysis reaction, using powdered activated carbon (PAC), TiO2 and Ni(Ac)2 as precursors. The results proved that the photocatalyst (C/TiO2/Ni) synthesized in this work exhibited greater removal activity for Methyl Orange (MO) dye from water as compared with the commercially available well reported TiO2 nanoparticles (P25). This significant enhancement in the photocatalytic activity for wastewater treatment due to the combination of PAC and TiO2 could be presumed as the synergetic effect on the contacting interface of TiO2 and PAC, and such effect was initially demonstrated by electrochemical impedance measurements. Furthermore, the trait that it consists of magnetic properties and therefore is easy to be recycled, which could be harnessed by an external magnet and may have many advantages over pure metal oxides (like TiO2) especially in the industrial procedures.
Acknowledgments
This work was finically supported by Center of Excellence in Nanotechnology (CENT), and KFUPM through NSTIP program under Project #08-NAN93-4 funded by KACST.