Sapana Tiwari, Bhawna Agrawal, Rakshit Ameta, Jayesh P. Bhatt and Suresh C. Ameta
Abstract
Organic contaminants of various classes can be degraded and completely mineralized by titania based photocatalysis. Cerium doped microporous crystals with different amount of Ce (0.3, 0.5,0.7 and 1.0%) were synthesized via a hydrothermal process. The cerium doped TiO2 nanoparticles were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The degradation of thiamethoxam was investigated under artificial light (mercury lamp) in the laboratory. The effect of some parameters like pH, catalyst amount, concentration of pesticides and intensity of light were studied to achieve optimal conditions. It was observed that Ce doped TiO2 particles exhibited higher photocatalytic activity as compared to undoped TiO2, may be due to generation of more reactive oxidative species. The optimum conditions achieved were pH = 7.5; [Thiamethoxam] = 17 ppm; Ce-TiO2 = 0.7%; and Light intensity=19.5 mw cm-2. It was found that at these conditions more than 85% thiamethoxam could be degraded.