Aug. 19, 2015

Iranian researchers produced a new catalyst that is able to decompose dye organic pollutants in the presence of ultrasonic waves to purify the wastewater.

Disposal of urban and industrial wastewater into river streams cause irreversible damages to the environment and people’s health. The use of advanced oxidation methods, including sonocatalytic processes, in order to purify water and wastewater (disinfection and decomposition of hazardous organic pollutants) has been extended across the world as replacement for traditional oxidation methods such as chlorination and ozonation.
This research has been carried out to synthesize and stabilize a nanocatalyst of zinc oxide to study its potential as a sonocatalyst in the decomposition of organic pollutants in aqueous media.
Biosilica bed has been used to stabilize the catalyst because it has a unique porous structure. The stabilization of the catalyst on an appropriate bed such as biosilica, glass or even concrete enables the application of catalyst in reactors to purity water in a cost-effective manner. The nanocomposite was used in an ultrasonic wave radiating reactor to eliminate and decompose the organic pollutant through sonocatalytic methods.
According to the researchers, results proved the desirable efficiency of the produced nanocomposite (made of zinc oxide nanoparticles and biosilica) to decompose and eliminate organic pollutants such as organic dyes.
In addition to its application in the decomposition of organic pollutants in aqueous media, the product can be used in rubber production industry too due to the study on the composition of zinc oxide nanoparticles and biosilica.