Abstract
This study presents a new application of phosphoric acid-based geopolymers and phosphate washing sludge (PW) as a photocatalyst for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye in wastewater. The aim of this work is to study the photodegradation of MB dye using PW@Geopolymer, exploring the effects of physico-chemical parameters such as initial pH and dye concentration on degradation kinetics. The kinetics of MB dye degradation are analyzed using pseudo-first and pseudo-second order rate equations, taking into account UV irradiation and non-irradiation conditions. The PW@Geopolymer photocatalyst exhibits high efficiency, achieving up to 91.7% MB dye degradation under UV irradiation. This performance is attributed to the combined effect of adsorption and semiconducting photocatalysis. The experimental data correlate closely with the pseudo-second order rate equation, indicating dominant adsorption kinetics. This research extends the applications of geopolymers by demonstrating their potential as efficient photocatalysts for MB dye removal from wastewater, providing valuable information on reaction kinetics, and highlighting the promising performance of PW@Geopolymer in eco-friendly dye degradation processes.
doi: 10.17756/nwj.2023-s2-036
Citation: Majdoubi H, Chraibi Y, Haddaji Y, Nadi M, Billah REK, et al. 2023. Phosphoric Acid Based Geopolymer as a Novel Photocatalyst for the Degradation of the Methylene Blue Dye in Wastewater. NanoWorld J 9(S2): S206-S213.