ROLE OF TiO2 NANOPARTICLES IN WASTE WATER PURIFICATION

Abstract

The article is the first to study the sorption properties of TiO2 nanoparticles with a rutile phase; TiO2 nanoparticles with a rutile phase were synthesized by the sol-gel method and used as an adsorbent. The adsorption process was carried out at a normal temperature and was used TiO2 with rutile modification. The adsorption process continued for two hours with periodical stirring. During the experiments, 0.05 g of TiO2 and 20 ml of a 1 mg/l phenol solution were taken and the process was carried out at a temperature of 250C. The adsorption properties of TiO2 nanoparticles with a complete rutile phase were studied. Although the rutile TiO2 phase is a very good photocatalyst it has been shown to be a weak adsorbent. Nano crystalline TiO2 particles of the rutile phase were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD).The course of adsorption was studied on the device "Varian Cary 50". Based on the curves plotted on the “Varian Cary 50” it was determined that adsorption was incomplete. At the end of the process judging by the graph we can say that the amount of phenol in the solution decreased but phenol still remained which indicates incomplete adsorption. As a result of the research carried out, the following conclusions can be drawn: crystalline TiO2 nanoparticles of the rutile phase were characterized by the XRD method; nanoparticle size determined by TEM, SEM analysis was about 10–30 nm; experiments have shown that TiO2 nanoparticles with a rutile phase are an adsorbent with the low level of efficiency. On the base carried out research, were developed two mathematical models of the adsorption process - exponential and logistic. The developed models of the adsorption process can take a possibility to determine in advance the duration of phenol adsorption by various amounts of the TiO2 adsorbent.