Synthesis of novel potassium peroxodisulfate-modified titanium dioxide for photocatalytic oxidation of acetaminophen under visible light irradiation

In recent years, traces of acetaminophen, a widely used analgesic and anti-inflammatory and known to be an over-the-counter drug, have been detected unaltered in effluents of conventional wastewater treatment facilities. About 58–68% released through excretion during patient’s therapeutic treatment, and only about 80–86% were removed by the wastewater treatment facility. This study investigated the improved performance of photocatalysis in degrading or removing acetaminophen. The visible light active potassium peroxodisulfate-doped titanium dioxide photocatalysts synthesized via sol–gel method was used to eliminate acetaminophen from aqueous solutions through photocatalytic oxidation. The effects of the amount of dopant, calcination temperature and calcination time on the properties and visible light photocatalytic activity of potassium peroxodisulfate-doped titanium dioxide were also investigated. Increasing the amount of the dopant and calcination temperature up to a certain extent increases removal efficiency while further decreased the removal rate. Potassium peroxodisulfate-doped titanium dioxide photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet–visible light diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Potassium peroxodisulfate-doped titanium dioxide with 0.5%w dopant and calcined at 300 °C for 3 h degrades about 100% acetaminophen in aqueous solution within 540 min. The reaction of acetaminophen with the photocatalyst has an apparent rate constant of 8.39 × 10−3 min−1.