Water is being contaminated on a daily basis by organic compounds, such as dyes, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides. Through the use of a photocatalyst, organic compounds can be broken down into water and carbon dioxide, but they are unable to react with compounds that float on the surface of water due to their density. This issue can be corrected by adding the bead into a buoyant material. Bouyant materials typically have a limited surface area compared to the photocatalyst alone, which is not ideal because it can take longer for the photocatalyst to react with the pollutant. The addition of the photocatalyst TiO2 or ZnO, into an emulsion during micro-bubble fabrication of PDMS beads creates a large surface-area-to-volume ratio through a porous structure, giving the photocataylst in use the maximum amount of access to the pollutant. Due to the PDMS beads hydrophobic nature and low-density, the beads are able to float on the surface of water but sink in organic compounds. The SEM analysis indicates that the structure of the TiO2/PDMS beads are unaffected by the addition of the photocatalyst, while the porous structure of the ZnO/PDMS beads are lost. Both photocatalysts have a first order reaction as they degrade organic compounds in the presence of UV-radiation. Although the ZnO/PDMS beads have a poorer structure compared to the TiO2/PDMS beads, it has been shown to out perform the TiO2/PDMS beads. If the structure is able to be corrected, then the ZnO/PDMS beads became ideal for the removal of organic pollutants on a large scale.

Buoyant photocatalyst used for the degradation of organic pollutants

255th National Meeting (2018)

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