Photocatalytic Degradation of Benzene Wastewater Using PANI-TiO2 Nanocomposite under UV and Solar Light Radiation

The removal of benzene from industrial wastewaters is investigated in this work, through photocatalytic degradation processes using nanocomposite particles. A series of polyaniline/anatase TiO2 (PANI/TiO2) nanocomposite powders with different PANI:TiO2 ratios were prepared by in situ deposition oxidative polymerization of aniline hydrochloride. Several tools, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray crystallography (XRD), particle-size analyzer (PSA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the nanocomposite structure and composition. The effects of important parameters such as type of catalyst, initial benzene concentration, pH, and degradation time have been investigated on the rate of removal of benzene. The results show that the PANI-TiO2 composite has the potential viability to be used as a photodegradable material. The results show that photocatalytic degradation in the solid polymer matrix proceeds much faster than direct photolytic degradation in the open atmosphere. The removal percent of benzene with a nanocomposite type of [5:1] of PANI/TiO2 in the ambient temperature with an optimum pH of 7 in a 120-min period is 99.22% under solar radiation and 98.95% under ultraviolet (UV) radiation. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.