Photocatalytic degradation of azo dye Orange II in aqueous solutions using copper-impregnated titania

During dyeing process, industries consume large quantity of water and subsequently produce large volume of wastewater. This wastewater is rich in color and contains different dyes. Orange II is one of them. In this article, metal-impregnated TiO2 P-25 catalyst was used to enhance the photocatalytic degradation of Orange II dye. Photodegradation percentage was followed spectrophotometrically by the measurements of absorbance at lambda (max) = 483 nm. The effect of copper-impregnated TiO2 P-25 photocatalyst for the degradation of Orange II has been investigated in terms of percentage removal of color, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC). As such 98 % color removal efficiency, 97 % percentage removal of COD and 89 % percentage removal of TOC was achieved with TiO2 P-25/Cu catalysts under typical conditions. Copper-impregnated TiO2 P-25 photocatalyst showed comparatively higher activity than UV/H2O2 homogeneous photodegradation. The relative electrical energy consumption for photocatalytic degradation was considerably lower with TiO2 P-25/Cu photocatalyst than that with homogeneous photodegradation. Transmission electron microscopic analysis was used for catalyst characterization.