Research articles
ScienceAsia 49 (2023):ID 454-461 |doi:
10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.2023.034
Potential effectiveness of visible-light-driven Fe/TiO2
photocatalysts for degradation of dyes contaminated
wastewater and their antibacterial activity
Chonlada Dechakiatkrai Theerakarunwonga,*, Onnicha Kaewtheta, Sukon Phanichphantb
ABSTRACT: Synthetic dyes are utilized across a variety of industries and pose potential threats to water quality
which, adversely, affects human health and environment. Photocatalysis is an effective technique for degrading
organic pollutants in wastewater by converting photons of light energy to chemical energy by using superior
semiconducting materials. Herein, we emphasized the significance of wastewater treatment by using a visible-lightsensitive photocatalyst obtained by doping Fe into TiO2
for achieving high removal efficiency. According to the
experimental results, photodegradation rate of the dye by 80% of 3% wt. Fe-doped TiO2 with 20% v/v H2O2
addition
was achieved in acidic media with three successive recycling runs. Moreover, total organic carbon (TOC) values
indicated that the dye was nearly mineralized into CO2
and water. This result may be related to the terephthalate (TPA)
analysis, indicating that the amount of generated hydroxyl radicals increases via H2O2
addition. In addition, preliminary
toxicological study was conducted focusing on contamination of Ti particles in selected plants after exposure to treated
water. The antibacterial efficiency of the selected photocatalyst was further tested against Gram-positive and Gramnegative pathogenic bacterial strains. The results revealed that 3% wt. Fe-doped TiO2 was highly efficient in inactivating
Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus after 3 h under visible light illumination. Overall, our results provided an
alternative for an inexpensive, non-toxic, stable, efficient, reusable, and excellent catalytic performance of 3% wt.
Fe-doped TiO2
photocatalyst materials with significant tasks remained for future study, including dye contaminated
wastewater treatment, bacterial growth inhibition and simultaneously solar harvesting.
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a |
Chemistry Program, Faculty of Science and Technology, Nakhon Sawan Rajabhat University,
Nakhon Sawan 60000 Thailand |
b |
Material Science Research Center, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200 Thailand |
* Corresponding author, E-mail: chonlada.d@nsru.ac.th
Received 17 Jun 2022, Accepted 21 Mar 2023
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