Synthesis of pumice-TiO2 nanoflakes for sonocatalytic degradation of famotidine

Pumice-TiO2 was synthesized through simple sol-gel method. The successful synthesis of the catalyst was verified by SEM, EDS, XRF, FT-IR and BET techniques. Then, a sonocatalytic process was performed to degrade famotidine in the presence of the synthesized catalyst and under ultrasonic irradiation. The removal efficiency of the sonocatalytic process with pumice TiO2, TiO2, pumice and sonolysis within 70 min was 71.1%, 33.9%, 31.1% and 8.9%, respectively. The main operational parameters which were examined in this study were catalyst dosage, pH, famotidine concentration and ultrasonic power which were optimized as 1.5 g/L, 5, 20 mg/L and 150 W, respectively. Moreover, the addition of radical scavengers (EDTA, Na2SO4 and 1, 4 benzoquinone) and enhancers (H2O2 and K2S2O8) which can affect the removal efficiency were investigated. Diverse degradation by-products were identified using GC-MS analysis. Eventually, the reusability tests confirmed that the synthesized pumice TiO2 catalyst had significant stability after 5 consecutive runs. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.