International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—Synthesis of titanium dioxide coated activated carbon (TiO2/AC) has been undertaken using sol-gel method and its application in Rhodamine B (RB) dye removal has been investigated. The synthesized sonocatalyst (TiO2/AC) was characterized by using SEM and FTIR techniques. The effects of the TiO2/AC on the sonocatalytic degradation of RB dye and the operational parameters such as pH, temperature, ultrasonic frequency with the presence/absence of sonocatalyst of the sonocatalytic degradation of RB were concerned in this study. The degradation efficiency of RB in aqueous solution could be achieved 82.21% with the addition of TiO2/AC at the best conditions. The best conditions for sonocatalytic degradation of RB were found to be pH 6, at temperature 50°C, under ultrasonic frequency of 30 kHz with the presence of sonocatalyst for 60 minutes.

Index Terms—Activated carbon, rhodamine B, titanium dioxide, ultrasound.

Soke Kwan Tang, Tjoon Tow Teng, Abbas F. M. Alkarkhi and Zhimin Liare with Environmental Technology Division, School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia. (e-mail: sokekwantang@yahoo.com; ttteng@usm.my; abbas@usm.my; sky_lizhimin@msn.com)

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Cite: Soke Kwan Tang, Tjoon Tow Teng, Abbas F. M. Alkarkhi, and Zhimin Li, "Sonocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine B in Aqueous Solution in the Presence of TiO2 Coated Activated Carbon," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 61-65, 2012.