Effect of dissolved oxygen concentration and light intensity on photocatalytic degradation of phenol

Catalyst loading is an important parameter that needs to be optimized in the operation of photocatalytic slurry reactors. In this study on photocatalytic degradation of phenol, the optimum catalyst loading was found to depend mainly on the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration in the aqueous solution, especially at higher irradiation intensities. The estimated Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) kinetics constants were found to vary with light intensity and dissolved oxygen concentration. The intermediate products of photocatalytic oxidation were identified.