Microwave photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B using TiO2 supported on activated carbon: Mechanism implication

The photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) was carried out using TiO2 supported on activated carbon (TiO2-AC) under microwave irradiation. Composite catalyst TiO2-AC was prepared and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). In the process of microwave-enhanced photocatalysis (MPC), RhB (30 mg/L) was almost completely decoloured in 10 min, and the mineralization efficiency was 96.0% in 20 min. The reaction rate constant of RhB in MPC using TiO2-AC by pseudo first-order reaction kinetics was 4.16 times of that using Degussa P25. Additionally, according to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) identification, the major intermediates of RhB in MPC included two kinds of N-de-ethylation intermediates (N,N-diethyl-N'-ethyl-rhodamine (DER)), oxalic acid, malonic acid, succinic acid, and phthalic acid, maleic acid, 3-nitrobenzoic acid, and so on. The degradation of RhB in MPC was mainly attributed to the destruction of the conjugated structure, and then the intermediates transformed to acid molecules which were mineralized to water and carbon dioxide.