Photocatalytic degradation of CI Reactive Red 2 by using TiO2-coated PET plastic under solar irradiation

The synthetic dyes are a refractory and poisonous material. Most of industrial textile today used the synthetic dyes that can be dangerous to the environment because of the colored wastewater produced from their processes. This study concentrates on the application of Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) for synthetic dyes wastewater treatment. Photocatalysis process as one of AOPs was applied for the degradation of organic content of synthetic dyes wastewater. The reactive dye, C.I. Reactive Red 2 (RR 2) was used as the organic pollutant model at the concentration of 100 mg/l. The TiO2 concentration of 0.05-0.4 g/ml was used as the photocatalyst. The bulk and nano-size of TiO2 were coating on the PET plastic and the degradation of organic content was examined in the term of color and COD within 0-12 hrs under solar irradiation. By using 0.4 g/ml of bulk TiO2, the color degradation of 88% and COD removal of 46% was achieved. Furthermore, by using 0.4 g/ml of nano-size TiO2, the enhancement of color degradation and COD removal was observed, that is 98% and 56%, respectively.