Laser induced photocatalytic degradation of phenol

Abstract

This thesis work mainly concerns with the photocatalytic degradation of phenol in the presence of laser irradiated semiconductor catalysts. A 355 nm UV laser was applied as a source of irradiation and the photocatalysts studied were WO3, NiO, TiO2 and Fe2O 3 in pure form after pretreatment. WO3 was derived from H 2WO4 and then studied in pure form and as well as surface modified form by doping with 1.0% and 10% transition metals. To study the morphology and composition of doped catalysts scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used. During the photocatalytic degradation process pH changes were measured and photonic efficiencies for all the catalytic process were calculated to estimate photon harvest. The rate constants for photocatalytic degradation of phenol were evaluated for all the catalytic processes.