Statistical Model for Photocatalytic Degradation of Phenol by Ag/TiO2 Nanofibers

Phenol is a petrochemical product that can pollute waters. Disposal of wastewater including phenol is harmful to the environment. It can be degraded using photocatalyst and solar radiation as a renewable energy source. Photocatalytic degradation of TiO2 can also be done by adding silver in visible light. Separation of nanofibers synthesized by the electrospun method is much easier than nanoparticles. Therefore, in this study, phenol degradation on Ag/TiO2 photocatalytic nanofibers have been investigated to study the effect of pH (6, 7 and 8), initial concentration of phenol (5, 25 and 45 ppm), catalyst concentration (0.5, 1.5 and 2.5 gr/L) using response surface methods (RSM) as a type of the design of experiment. The quadratic statistical model had the best match with experimental data, and the results showed that by increasing the initial concentration of phenol and increasing of pH, the phenol degradation decreased. Catalyst concentration has a significant quadratic (not linear) relationship in the correlated statistical model that shows the catalyst concentration has an optimum value at its middle level.

کلیدواژه ها:

Photocatalytic Nanofibers ، Ag/TiO2 ، Electrospun ، Phenol Degradation ، Design of Experiment ، Response Surface Method ، Quadratic Statistical Model.