Photocatalytic Degradation of Antibacterial Sulfanilamide from Aqueous Solution Using TiO2 Nanocatalyst

Abstract

Photocatalytic degradation of sulfanilamide (SNM) as a kind of pollutant agent through titanium dioxide nano particles (TiO2) under UV irradiation was evaluated. The effect of different parameters, such as TiO2 and SNM concentrations, amount of pH, inorganic salt and type of light source on the reaction rate was investigated. The results show that SNM was completely removed from the solution after 60 min under UV irradiation. Furthermore, kinetic studied were performed at 25°C over different ranges of SNM concentrations from 100 to 300 ppm, TiO2 concentrations from 0.05 to 1 gL-1 and pH of suspensions from 3 to 11. In this range of concentration of materials, a Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetic model can describe the process. An overall pseudo-first order kinetic constant was calculated for sulfanilamide conversion. The optimum TiO2 loading, which provides enough surface area for reaction without irradiation loss due to scattering of UV light, was found to be 0.1gL-1, and SNM concentration was100 ppm. Higher degradation efficiency of SNM was observed at pH=9. Finally, the results of this work proved that photocatalysis of SNM is a promising technology to reduce persistent substances even if they are present in low concentrations.