TiO2/clay as a heterogeneous catalyst in photocatalytic/photochemical oxidation of anionic reactive blue 19

A TiO2-coated Tunisian clay (TiO2–clay) was synthesized by a typical impregnation method. The physicochemical characterization points to a successful impregnation of titania on the clay surface. The activity of this structured catalyst was studied in the photocatalytic/photochemical oxidation of anionic reactive blue 19 (RB 19). The effect of UVA and solar irradiation (UV-solar) was studied at room temperature. TiO2–clay demonstrated an effective degradation of RB 19 under both types of irradiation. Moreover, in this study, the effects of various oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), potassium peroxodisulfate (K2S2O8) and sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) were thoroughly investigated. H2O2 was a promising oxidant for promoting RB 19 degradation under UVA. The kinetics of discoloration of RB 19 followed a pseudo-first-order rate law. We can remark that 20 min of UV irradiation was enough to achieve 100% discoloration of the aqueous solution. However, under UV–Vis, HPLC and chemical oxygen demand measurements indicated, that a longer reaction time (of around 45 min) was required for achieving the complete dye mineralization. The findings clearly demonstrated the applicability of this TiO2/clay catalyst for the photocatalytic oxidation of RB 19.