Degradation of AB25 dye in liquid medium by atmospheric pressure non-thermal plasma and plasma combination with photocatalyst TiO2

Abstract

In this work, degradation of the anthraquinonic dye Acid Blue 25 by non-thermal plasma at atmospheric pressure with and without photocatalyst is investigated. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is used as a photocatalyst. The dye degradation by plasma in the presence of TiO2is investigated as a function of TiO2concentration, dye concentration and pH. The degradation rate is higher in acidic solutions with pH of 2 to 4.3, especially at pH 2, and decreases to 0.38 mg L-1 min-1 with the increase of pH from 2 to 5.65. A similar effect is observed in basic media, where a higher degradation rate is found at pH = 10.3. The degradation rate increases in the presence of TiO2compared to the discharge without photocatalysis. The results show that the degradation of the dye increases in the presence of TiO2until the catalyst load reaches 0.5 g L-1after which the suppression of AB25 degradation is observed. The results indicate that the tested advanced oxidation processes are very effective for the degradation of AB25 in aqueous solutions.