Solar photocatalytic application of NbO2OH as alternative photocatalyst for water treatment

Luana Márcia Bezerra Batista; Alexsandro Jhones Dos Santos; Djalma Ribeiro da Silva; Ana Paula de Melo Alves; Sergi Garcia-Segura; Carlos Alberto Martínez-Huitle

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.019

Solar photocatalytic application of NbO₂OH as alternative photocatalyst for water treatment

Sci Total Environ. 2017 Oct 15:596-597:79-86. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.019. Epub 2017 Apr 17.

Authors

Luana Márcia Bezerra Batista¹, Alexsandro Jhones Dos Santos², Djalma Ribeiro da Silva², Ana Paula de Melo Alves³, Sergi Garcia-Segura⁴, Carlos Alberto Martínez-Huitle²

Affiliations

¹ Laboratório de Catálise e Petroquímica (LCP), Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Lagoa Nova, CEP 59078-970 Natal, RN, Brazil.
² Laboratório de Eletroquímica Ambiental e Aplicada (LEAA), Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Lagoa Nova, CEP 59078-970 Natal, RN, Brazil.
³ Laboratório de Catálise e Petroquímica (LCP), Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Lagoa Nova, CEP 59078-970 Natal, RN, Brazil. Electronic address: anachemistry@pq.cnpq.br.
⁴ Laboratório de Eletroquímica Ambiental e Aplicada (LEAA), Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Lagoa Nova, CEP 59078-970 Natal, RN, Brazil. Electronic address: sergigarcia@ub.edu.

PMID: 28426988
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.019

Abstract

Water recycling and industrial effluents remediation are a hot topic of research to reduce the environmental impact of the human activity. Persistent organic pollutants are highly recalcitrant compounds with hazardous effects associated to their fate in water bodies. Several novel technologies have been developed during the last decades to deal with this novel contamination. However, the natural sources and idiosyncrasy of each country lead to the potential application of different technologies. In this context, we have focused on the development of phocotalytic treatment of solutions containing dyes using a novel photocatalytic material, the NbO₂OH. The NbO₂OH was synthesized and characterized with different techniques. Several assays demonstrated the solar photoactivity of this novel oxyhydroxide catalyst, achieving complete decolorizations after 10min of treatment under optimal conditions of 1.0gL^-1 NbO₂OH photocatalyst loading, 0.1M of H₂O₂ as electron scavenger, pH4.0 and methyl orange concentrations up to 15mgL^-1. Also, the catalyst recuperation demonstrated the potential reuse of this photocatalyst without losing catalytic response after five cycles. This work is of significant importance because niobium is a natural resource, mainly extracted in Brazil and the annual global sunlight irradiation in the near-equatorial region of northeast Brazil is over the average solar irradiation of the planet. Thus, the solar photocatalytic treatment using NbO₂OH in northeast Brazil appears as a highly potential environmental-friendly nanotechnology to mitigate the water pollution.

Keywords: Advanced oxidation process; Azo dye; Methyl orange; Nanotechnology; Niobium; Solar photocatalysis.