Phenol Contamination Detection and Purification in Water using Optical Methods

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.