Titanium Dioxide Catalyzed Photocatalytic Degradation of Carboxylic Acids from Waste Water: A Review

Abstract

Among the new oxidation methods in advanced oxidation processes, heterogeneous photocatalysis based on UV/ titanium dioxide is one of the emerging technologies for degrading and totally mineralizing toxic and highly stable carboxylic acids from waste water has attracted great attention in last decade. The aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic acids are widely used as reactants or produced as main products or byproducts in various chemical process industries. These chemical process industries generates waste water containing significant amount of carboxylic acids, which need to be removed from waste water before disposal to natural water bodies due to the environmental restrictions and their hazardous effects on flora and fauna. This paper reviews photocatalytic degradation (PCD) process for various carboxylic acids in detail, including basic mechanism of titanium dioxide, effect of carboxylic acid structure and various reaction parameters like effect of initial concentration and kinetic study, catalyst loading, pH, adsorption and deactivation of the photocatalyst. A critical analysis of the available literature has been made and some general conclusions have been drawn related to the above mentioned parameters. The photocatalytic degradation pathways for carboxylic acids are also discussed to understand this process thoroughly.