Combine electrochemistry with photocatalysis
- Indiana Univ. Northwest, Gary, IN (United States)
- Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
Because a substantial percentage of colorant is lost during the dyeing process, remediation efforts have largely been focused on removing these dyes from the wastewater effluents of textile mills and other industrial colorant users. Incomplete decolorization of the effluent before discharge shifts the burden of treatment downstream. In publicly owned water treatment facilities, these dyes often end up as sludges that are dewatered and eventually deposited in landfills. There is a substantial economic impetus to develop a flow reactor to be used onstream by mills to treat colorant effluent and recycle the water. The authors have developed a photocatalytic approach using semiconductors for degrading several azo dyes. They recently found that deposition of semiconductor nanoclusters on a conducting glass surface provides a convenient way to manipulate the photocatalytic reaction by electrochemical methods. The thin semiconductor particulate film can be used as a photosensitive electrode in an electrochemical cell. The paper describes electrode preparation, the photoelectrochemical properties of TiO{sub 2} and SnO{sub 2}, reaction mechanism, and composite semiconductor films.
- OSTI ID:
- 260796
- Journal Information:
- CHEMTECH, Vol. 26, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Apr 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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