Research Article Phenol Photocatalytic Degradation by Advanced Oxidation Process under Ultraviolet Radiation Using Titanium Dioxide

Copyright © 2013 Ali Nickheslat et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. The main objective of this study was to examine the photocatalytic degradation of phenol from laboratory samples and petrochemical industries wastewater under UV radiation by using nanoparticles of titanium dioxide coated on the inner and outer quartz glass tubes. Method. The first stage of this study was conducted to stabilize the titanium dioxide nanoparticles in anatase crystal phase, using dip-coating sol-gel method on the inner and outer surfaces of quartz glass tubes.The effect of important parameters including initial phenol concentration, TiO 2 catalyst dose, duration of UV radiation, pH of solution, and contact time was investigated.Results. In the dip-coat lining stage, the produced nanoparticles with anatase crystalline structure have the average particle size of 30 nm and are uniformly distributed over the tube surface. The removal efficiency of phenol was increased with the descending of the solution pH and initial phenol concentration and rising of the contact time. Conclusion. Results showed that the light easily passes through four layers of coating (about 105 nm). The highest removal efficiency of phenol with photocatalytic UV/Ti