Effect of Sunlight and Ultraviolet Radiation in the Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) Nanoparticles for Removal of Furfural from Water

Background and purpose: Furfural compound is very harmful to health that is used or generated in many industries such as oil refineries, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, paper, etc. The composition is one of the critical pollutants that is difficult to remove using the biological methods; therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of TiO2 nanoparticles in the removal of furfural in the presence of sunlight and UV radiation. Materials and methods: In this study, TiO2 was prepared by sol – gel method and the properties of nanoparticle were determined using SEM. The number of samples was determined through the central composite statistical methods. The samples with definite concentration of furfural and nanoparticle in different operational conditions were exposed to sunlight and UV radiation, individually. The furfural concentration was measured using HPLC. Data analysis was performed using Minitab 16 software. Results: The results showed that the removal efficiency of furfural increased with rising staying time, nanoparticle dose and pH and decreased with rising of the furfural concentration in both methods. The highest removal efficiency of TiO2/UV and TiO2/sun methods were 87 and 45 percent, respectively