Degradation of Rhodamine B in the photocatalytic reactor containing TiO2 nanotube arrays coupled with nanobubbles
Zesen Lin, Changchang Dong, Wei Mu, Xiaojun Han
Abstract
Although photocatalytic technology is applied in water treatment, the challenge still exists due to its low photocatalytic performance. Herein, a photocatalytic reactor coupled with nanobubbles (NBs) is developed to degrade organic pollutants in wastewater. The reactor contains Ti mesh coated with TiO2 nanotube arrays as a photocatalyst. The introduction of NBs in the reactor increases the dissolved oxygen content to enhance photocatalytic performance. The photocatalytic reactor exhibits outstanding photocatalytic performance, and the degradation ability of Rhodamine B is 95.39% after 2 h of irradiation treatment. The reactor also shows excellent photodegradation performance for other organic pollutants, such as methylene blue (74.23%), tetracycline (68.68%), and oxytetracycline hydrochloride (64.10%). Radical trapping experiments further prove that ·O2−, h+ and ·OH are the active species for the degradation of RhB in the photocatalytic system. Therefore, this work provides a feasible strategy to design a photocatalytic reactor coupling with nanobubbles technology for the photodegradation of organic pollutants in wastewater.