Enhanced photocatalytic activity of fish scale loaded TiO_2 composites under solar light irradiation

摘要

Fish scale (FS) loaded TiO_2 composites were investigated as photocatalysts in degradation of Methyl Orange under solar light irradiation.Composites were prepared through sol-gel method by varying mass ratio of TiO_2 /FS at 90:10,70:30 and 50:50,respectively.The catalysts prepared in this study were characterized by using XRD,SEM,FT-IR and nitrogen sorption.The effects of solar irradiation,mass ratio of TiO_2 /FS composites,irradiation time and catalyst loadings were studied.Synergistic effect was found in TiO_2 /FS of 90:10 composite which performed higher photocatalytic degradation than synthesized TiO_2 under solar light irradiation.However,further increasing fish scale content in the composites reduced the photocatalytic activity drastically.Under solar light irradiation,all the catalysts in this study exhibited photocatalytic activity,except TiO_2 /FS of 50:50 composite that only acted as a weak biosorbent without performing any photocatalytic property.Photocatalytic degradation increased with increasing catalyst loading and irradiation time but decreased with increased of initial dye concentration.