Publication date:
Available online 11 July 2013
Source:Arabian Journal of Chemistry
Author(s): Ufana Riaz , S.M. Ashraf , Mohd. Aqib
Microwave-assisted photocatalytic degradation of dyes is one of the emerging technologies for waste water remediation. Microwave effectively accelerates photocatalytic degradation, when microwave electrodeless lamp (MEL) substitutes traditional UV lamp as light source. This setup can be extremely simplified if MEL and photocatalyst can be replaced by a catalyst which can work under microwave irradiation in the absence of any light source. The present work reports for the first time degradation of acid orange 7 (AO) under microwave irradiation using polyaniline (PANI) as catalyst in the absence of any UV lamp as light source. The degradation/decolourization was carried out in neutral acidic and basic media and was monitored spectrophotometrically to evaluate the ability of microwave irradiation to degrade AO. Microwave irradiation showed excellent performance as it completely decolourises AO dye solution in 10 min. With the advantages of low cost and rapid processing, this novel catalyst is expected to gain promising application in the treatment of various dyestuff wastewaters on a large scale.