Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants using a commercial catalyst by heterogeneous photocatalysis

The continuous growth of the population and industrial has provided an increase in the environmental impact and human health, due to the greater quantities of waste generated, mainly by the presence of organic toxic compounds, such as the dyes. Then, the work aims to evaluate the applicability of heterogeneous photocatalysis in the degradation of the rhodamine B dye, such as a target molecule, using the commercial titanium dioxide catalyst, under ultraviolet and visible radiation. In addition, to study of the effects of the catalyst concentration (5-100 mg L-1), dye concentration (20-100mgL-1) and doping on photocatalytic activity. The catalysts (commercialanddoped) were characterized by X-ray diffraction, zeta potential, porosimetryof N2and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The best condition was 50 mg L-1 for the commercial catalyst and 20 mg L-1 of RhB dye concentration, under UV radiation. In addition, doping with Mg+2provided an increase of about 28 % in photocatalytic activity in relation to non-doped catalyst, as well as changes in structural and textural properties, such as decrease of the band gap energy (Eg), increase in the surface area (SBET), increase in pore diameter (Dp) and volume (Vp) and increase (in module) of the zeta potential (ZP).