Paper 708e: Optimization of ball-milled Ni/InVO4-TiO2 photocatalyst for the degradation of methyl orange through use of an orthogonal-array experimental design

摘要

We have investigated the effect of various catalyst synthesis parameters on the photocatalytic degradation kinetics of methyl orange dye. The parameters varied were InVO4 weight %, Ni weight %, InVO4 calcination temperature, and ball-milling time. Three levels were used for each factor. Due to the large number of possible experiments in a 34 full factorial experiment, an orthogonal-array experimental design was used instead. Two 15-W UV lights were used to degrade 5 ppm (by mass) solutions of methyl orange dye using 1000 ppm of catalyst. Degradation was performed after an initial 1-hour adsorption period. UV-vis spectrophotometry was used to measure the degradation of the dye as a function of time. Our results indicate that ball-milling time is the most important parameter, with the relative order of importance of all parameters being milling time > InVO4 calcination temperature > weight fraction of InVO4 weight fraction of Ni. The optimal photocatalyst likely has a composition of 2 wt. % 600 °C-InVO4, 1 wt. % Ni, and is milled for only 4 hours.