Abstract:
In recent years, photocatalytic oxidation processes with ultra violet (UV)
radiation and semiconductor photo catalyst like titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zinc
oxide (ZnO) have gained immense research interest as an effective water
purification method because of its efficacy in decomposing and mineralizing the
hazardous organic pollutants as well as the opportunity of utilizing the solar UV
and visible spectrum.
In this work, different concentrations (05 %, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%) of
phenol in water was prepared and characterized using UV Vis spectroscopy, and
adding ZnO as a photo catalysis to the mixture then characterized again.
Photocatalytic decomposition of phenol in water with ZnO catalysts was studied.
The results show that the absorbance of water contaminated with phenol is
increase with increasing concentration of phenol in water according to specific
Boltzmann equation that can be used to determine the degree of contamination.
The purification of water from phenol was studied by treating it by ZnO and
UV light exposure.
