Students' Projects

Development of visible light responsive photocatalyst for dye degradation
Department Chemical Engineering
Year 2020-21
Budget 200000
Students Parth Jayeshkumar Shah, Pradeep Bhagwanbhai Suthar, Drashti Sandipkumar Thakkar
Mentor Prof. Femina Patel
Abstract Color causing compounds removal from wastewater is one of the major issue faced by industries, because of its toxic, carcinogenic, baleful nature. It adversely affect the aquatic life and human health too. Many processes are known to mankind such as physiochemical, biological, chemical and electrochemical. Among these processes Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) – Chemical processes, and in particular photocatalyst using spinel type photocatalyst for dye degradation have been discussed, because of akin to all chemical processes this process degrade the colour causing pollutants (dyes) and convert it into simpler molecules such as CO 2 , H 2 O and other simpler compounds depending on structure of dyes. First basics of photocatalyst along with degradation mechanism and works carried out with different catalysts are discussed then in successive sections spinels, effect of doping and parameters affecting photocatalysts, three different spinels Nickel Ferrites, Cobalt Ferrites and Zinc Ferrites are discussed in detail. Effect of doping on A sites and B sites both are studied. As per our study doping alters the magnetic, optical properties and structural parameters also. Most commonly it is observed that doping improves the photocatalysis by introducing the defects into the spinel lattice and increasing strain which causes oxygen vacancies, also causes higher surface area and reduction in particle or grain size, which finally results in better photocatalytic activity and ease of separation because of magnetic properties. It is aimed to review the recent works carried out in the field of photocatalytic dye degradation using spinel type catalysts.