Sonophotocatalytic Degradation of Fast Yellow AB and Remazol Brilliant Violet-5R by Using Ag-Impregnated ZnO as a Photocatalyst

The fundamental aimof this project was to assess the sonophotocatalyticdegradation of textile dyes mostly eluted from industries into wastewater.Such a pretreatment of wastewater makes the water suitable for drinkingand irrigation purposes and thereby helps protect the ecosystem. Themain objective of this research was to degrade real samples and laboratory-preparedsamples sonophotocatalytically using a silver-impregnated ZnO photocatalyst.Reactive dyes, including Fast Yellow AB (FY AB) and Remazol BrilliantViolet-5R (RBV-5R), were degraded via this technique under optimumand enhanced conditions. The photocatalyst was synthesized througha wet impregnation process and characterized by scanning electronmicroscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, Fouriertransform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and UV/vis spectroscopy toexamine the morphology, composition, and functional groups of thephotocatalyst. Parameters including pH, dosage, dye concentration,scavengers, and effects of oxidizing agents were considered. Underoptimal conditions, the degradations were 95.7 and 88.9% for RBV-5Rand FY AB, respectively, in 60 min. The pH and oxidizing agents playedimportant roles in the degradation process. Only 43.8 and 32.5% ofRBV-5R and FY AB, respectively, were degraded in the absence of anoxidizing agent. With the addition of oxidizing agents, 95.7 and 88.9%of RBV-5R and FY AB degradation occurred, respectively. The optimalpH values for RBV 5-R and FY-AB were 8 and 12, respectively. A comparisonbetween the photocatalytic and sonophotocatalytic processes revealeddegradation efficiencies of 41 and 33% for RBV-5R and FY-AB, respectively,by the photocatalytic process. Therefore, results indicate the productivityof the sonophotocatalytic degradation process.