Solar driven decolourisation of Reactive Yellow 14 by advanced oxidation processes in heterogeneous and homogeneous media

This paper evaluates the decolourisation of an azo dye Reactive Yellow 14 (RY14) by three advanced oxidation processes viz., solar/TiO2, solar/H2O2 and solar/H2O2/Fe2+ (photo-Fenton). The results showed that all the three processes could be effectively used for the decolourisation. The study on the effects of various experimental parameters such as pH, dye concentration, light intensity on the solar decolourisation revealed that these parameters influenced the removal rate. The photodecolourisation efficiencies with solar irradiation are comparable to UV irradiation. It is found that these three solar processes are viable techniques for the decolourisation of RY14. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.