Photocatalytic Treatment of Synthetic and Real Textile Wastewater Using Zinc Oxide Under the Action of Sunlight

The influence of the concentration of the catalyst zinc oxide (0.01-0.3 g center dot L-1) and the initial concentration of the azo dye Solophenyl Brown AGL (SB AGL, 5-75) on the efficiency of its photocatalytic degradation was studied. Almost complete degradation of the pollutant is achieved at a natural pH and catalyst content of 0.05 g center dot L-1. The results of kinetic studies correspond to the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model. The efficiency of predicting the yield of photocatalytic degradation of SB AGL using a three-layer neural network with four input neurons, eight hidden neurons, and one output neuron is shown. The treatment of industrial wastewater containing two textile dye, Solophenyl Brown AGL and Cibacete Brown JNH, using a hybrid process (adsorption/solar photocatalysis) was successfully achieved.