Alsohaimi Ibrahim Hotan
Chemistry Department, College of Science, Jouf University, Sakaka 2014, Saudi Arabia.
Polymers (Basel). 2024 Nov 27;16(23):3321. doi: 10.3390/polym16233321.
Water pollution poses significant environmental challenges, particularly from dyes used in various industrial processes. Effective removal methods are essential to mitigate their impact on aquatic environments. Activated carbon (AC) is widely used for its adsorption properties, and further modifications can enhance its efficiency. In this study, we developed polystyrene sulfonate-modified activated carbon (AC@PSS) using a facile and efficient method to improve the photo-degradation of methylene blue (MB) in aquatic environments. The modification enhanced the activated carbon's surface features and adsorption, improving its photocatalytic activity. The photocatalysts were characterized using XRD, SEM, FTIR, and TGA. Based on Tauc's equation, the band gap value of AC@PSS was 4.0 eV. The photocatalytic efficacy of the AC@PSS catalyst was assessed by studying the degradation of MB dye under UV-rich solar irradiation. The influence of various variables on the photo-degradation of MB dye such as pH (2-12), reaction time (0-160 min), catalyst dosage (20-80 mg), and dye concentration (10-300 mg/L) was investigated. The AC@PSS catalyst demonstrated impressive degradation efficacy for MB dye of 98% in 160 min at pH 11, a temperature of 25 °C, a catalyst dose of 60 mg, and initial MB content of 10 mg/L. The superior performance of the AC@PSS catalyst could be due to the effective separation of photogenerated electron holes. Accordingly, the photo-degradation of MB is affected by the photo-produced radical OH. Finally, we conclude that synthesizing AC@PSS is highly effective for the degradation of MB dye.
水污染带来了重大的环境挑战，尤其是各种工业生产过程中使用的染料造成的污染。有效的去除方法对于减轻其对水生环境的影响至关重要。活性炭（AC）因其吸附性能而被广泛使用，进一步改性可以提高其效率。在本研究中，我们采用一种简便高效的方法制备了聚苯乙烯磺酸盐改性活性炭（AC@PSS），以提高其在水生环境中对亚甲基蓝（MB）的光降解性能。改性增强了活性炭的表面特性和吸附性能，提高了其光催化活性。使用X射线衍射（XRD）、扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）和热重分析（TGA）对光催化剂进行了表征。根据陶氏方程，AC@PSS的带隙值为4.0电子伏特。通过研究在富含紫外线的太阳辐射下MB染料的降解情况，评估了AC@PSS催化剂的光催化效果。研究了各种变量对MB染料光降解的影响，如pH值（2 - 12）、反应时间（0 - 160分钟）、催化剂用量（20 - 80毫克）和染料浓度（10 - 300毫克/升）。在pH值为11、温度为25℃、催化剂用量为60毫克、初始MB含量为10毫克/升的条件下，AC@PSS催化剂在160分钟内对MB染料的降解效率高达98%，表现出令人印象深刻的降解效果。AC@PSS催化剂的优异性能可能归因于光生电子空穴的有效分离。因此，MB的光降解受到光生羟基自由基（OH）的影响。最后，我们得出结论，合成AC@PSS对MB染料的降解非常有效。
