Wastewater treatment by cyclodextrin polymers and noble metal/mesoporous TiO2 photocatalysts

Pollution of water from a wide range of organic pollutants is a serious environmental problem. Conventional water treatment technologies are not very effective for reducing the concentration of these pollutants to a desirable level. The aim of this work was to evaluate the efficiency of two technologies in reducing the pollutant concentration of two wastewater samples. Therefore, cross-linked cyclodextrin (CD) polymers were synthesized and their adsorption capacities were evaluated. An emerging oxidation process using doped TiO2 was also evaluated. For both technologies, we Observed a decrease in the total organic carbon (TOC) content due either to the adsorption of pollutants by CD polymers or to the mineralization of pollutants by photocatalysis. (C) 2014 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.