Publication Date:
2012-07-01
Description:
Background: The discharge of wastewater that contains high concentrations of reactive dyes is a wellknownproblem associated with dyestuff activities. In recent years, semiconductorphotocatalysis has become more and more attractive and important since it has a greatpotential to contribute to such environmental problems. One of the most important aspects ofenvironmental photocatalysis is in the selection of semiconductor materials like ZnO andTiO2, which are close to being two of the ideal photocatalysts in several respects. Forexample, they are relatively inexpensive, and they provide photo-generated holes with highoxidizing power due to their wide band gap energy. In this work, nanostructural ZnO film onthe Zn foil of the Alkaline-Manganese Dioxide-Zinc Cell was fabricated to degrade EV dye. The major innovation of this paper is to obtain the degradation mechanism of ethyl violetdyes resulting from the HPLC-PDA-ESI-MS analyses. Results: The fabrication of ZnO nanostructures on zinc foils with a simple solution-based corrosionstrategy and the synthesis, characterization, application, and implication of Zn would bereported in this study. Other objectives of this research are to identify the reactionintermediates and to understand the detailed degradation mechanism of EV dye, as modelcompound of triphenylmethane dye, with active Zn metal, by HPLC-ESI-MS and GC-MS. Conclusions: ZnO nanostructure/Zn-foils had an excellent potential for future applications on thephotocatalytic degradation of the organic dye in the environmental remediation. Theintermediates of the degradation process were separated and characterized by the HPLCPDA-ESI-MS and GC-MS, and twenty-six intermediates were characterized in this study.Based on the variation of the amount of intermediates, possible degradation pathways for thedecolorization of dyes are also proposed and discussed.
Electronic ISSN:
1752-153X
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
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