Degradation of trypan blue dye using copper pyrovanadate as heterogeneous photo-Fenton like catalyst

Abstract

The photo-Fenton like degradation of trypan blue dye has been studied by using copper pyrovanadate catalyst. Catalyst has been prepared by wet chemical method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Barrett-Emmett-Teller (BET), thermal gravimetric analysis and FT-IR techniques. The effects of different reaction parameters have been assessed. CO₃^2-, NO₃^- etc. ions have been identified as final mineralization products. Chemical Oxygen Demand of the reaction mixture before and after exposure has been determined. A tentative mechanism for the degradation of trypan blue has also been proposed. Involvement of OH^• radical as a main oxidant has been confirmed using its scavengers. The photodegradation efficiency after 2 hour of illumination is found to be 72.41%. The results indicate that copper pyrovanadate acts as an effective catalyst for the heterogeneous photo-Fenton degradation of trypan blue.