Photocatalytic degradation of monoethanolamine in wastewater using nanosized TiO2 loaded on clinoptilolite

The use of titanium dioxide (TiO2) as photocatalyst to degrade the organic compounds is an effective method of oxidation process and has been widely studied in environmental engineering. In this investigation photocatalytic degradation of monoethanolamine (MEA) using TiO2 (in form of anatase) loaded on surface of clinoptilolite (CP) (TiO2-CP) in wastewater was studied. The surface interaction between TiO2 and CP was investigated by means of transmission electron microscope (TEM), atom force microscope (AFM), IR and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Then the effects of some parameters such as pH, amount of photocatalyst, and initial concentration of MEA on degradation percentage of MEA were examined. The obtained results show that the TiO2-CP is an active photocatalyst as compared with TiO2 nanopowders. All these results indicated that this proposed method can be useful for the development of wastewater treatment applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.