Photocatalytic degradation of reactive black-5 dye using TiO2 impregnated ZSM-5

In the present study, photocatalytic degradation of reactive black-5 (RB-5) dye was investigated using supported TiO2 photocatalyst based adsorbent as a semiconductor photocatalyst in a batch reactor. The synthesized photocatalyst composition was developed using TiO2 as photoactive component and zeolite (ZSM-5) as the adsorbents. Attempts were also made to optimize the composition of the supported catalyst and to study the reliability of prepared catalyst. The optimum formulation of supported catalyst was found to be (TiO2: ZSM-5 = 0·15:1) which gave the highest efficiency with 98% degradation of 50 mg/L RB-5 solution in 90 min. Effect of different parameters such as initial concentration of dye solution, catalyst amount on the rate of photodegradation was also studied. The reduction in the chemical oxygen demand (COD, 88%) proves the mineralization of the RB-5 dye along with the colour removal. The supported TiO2 was found to be stable for repeated use.