Photocatalytic degradation of Methyl orange and Rhodamine B over TiO2 prepared by sol-gel method: parametric study

TiO 2 was synthesized by a sol-gel method using chitosan as a structure-directing agent. The prepared nanoparticle was characterized using XRD, FESEM and HRTEM techniques. Nanoparticles prepared in this work exhibited spherical shape with particle size ranged 8-13nm. Parameters affect the photocatalytic degradation as catalyst dosage, initial dye concentration and pH examined for methyl orange (MO) and Rhodamine B (RhB) dyes. It was found that the degradation process strongly depends on these parameters. The reusability of the TiO 2 is investigated during five cycle experiments, the activity of the catalyst showed good activity at the cycles which indicates that the TiO 2 can be used repeatedly.