PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION OF NITROBENZENE USING TITANIUM DIOXIDE DOPED WITH COPPER PHTHALOCYNINE

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Doctor, Dpt. of Petrochemistry, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.

2 Professor, Dpt. of Petrochemistry, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

ABSTRACT
The effect of doping titanium dioxide with copper phthalocyanine (CuPc /TiO2) in presence of H2O2 was investigated in the degradation of nitrobenzene (NB) in batch system using a mercury lamp (λ>250 nm). The doped catalysts were prepared with different complex loadings of 1.0, 1.4, 1.8 and 2.2 wt.% .The catalyst sample with loading of 1.4 wt.% was the most active one. Complete degradation of NB was achieved after 135 min using 40 mg / L from the optimum catalyst sample and 7500 mg / L of H2O2. The catalyst samples were characterized by XRD and FTIR spectroscopy. From the kinetic study of the photocatalytic degradation of NB, it was concluded that the rate of reaction increased by increasing catalyst weight. In addition, the effect of the initial concentration of NB was examined. The effect of doping CuPc / TiO2 on the efficiency of TiO2 was discussed. Oxidation and reduction pathways were investigated.

Keywords