Author(s)

Sanjay V. Ingale, Pratap B. Wagh, Arvind K. Tripathi, Rohit Srivastav Srivastav, Imejinary K. Singh, Ramesh C. Bindal, Satish C. Gupta

Applied Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India.
Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India.
Desalination Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India.

The nano sized TiO₂ has been synthesized by sol gel process. The titaniumisopropaxide diluted in propanol hydrolyzed under acidic condition to form a gel. The solvent from gel pores has been extracted at ambient pressure resulting in nano sized TiO₂ crystallites. The crystalline phase of TiO₂ could be assigned to anatase structure. An average crystallite size is about 12 nm. The surface area of TiO₂ found to be 235 m²/g. The TiO₂ nanocrystallites thus produced were blended with polysulphone to form its beads for ease of operation. These beads of TiO₂ were used as photo catalyst in conjunction with H₂O₂ oxidizer in presence of UV light (254 nm) for treating the 50 ppm Rhodamine B aqueous solution. The solution decolorized within 10 minutes resulting in disappearance of absorption peak at around 600 nm in UV spectrometry. The organic entities degrade in about 60 minutes. The beads of nano sized TiO₂ could be easily recovered from the treated effluent for further use.

Photo Oxidation; Rhodamine B; TiO₂

S. Ingale, P. Wagh, A. Tripathi, R. Srivastav, I. Singh, R. Bindal and S. Gupta, "TiO₂-Polysulfone Beads for Use in Photo Oxidation of Rhodamine B," Soft Nanoscience Letters, Vol. 2 No. 4, 2012, pp. 67-70. doi: 10.4236/snl.2012.24012.