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Abstract
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Activated carbon (AC) was impregnated with titanium dioxide (TiO2) to synthesize AC/TiO2 nanocomposite
through the sol-gel method at 400°C. Nanocomposite characterization was conducted by
XRD, SEM and FTIR analyses. The synthesized nanoparticles were phase-pure anatase nanocrystallites
with the average size of 10 nm. The AC/TiO2 nanocomposites were applied for the first time
to photocatalytic decomposition of Congo red (CR) dye under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation in a photoreactor.
The effects of AC/TiO2 nanocatalyst dosage (0.3–1 g), CR concentration (20–100 ppm), pH
(3–9) and temperature (30–50°C) were examined for removal of CR solution pigments. Moreover,
the adsorption kinetics and isotherm models were investigated on the AC and synthesized AC/
TiO2 nanophotocatalyst. The adsorption mechanism was found to be a pseudo-second-order kinetics
with the good agreement for both adsorbents. Also the experimental isotherms were appropriately
described by the Langmuir and Temkin models for AC adsorbent and AC/TiO2 nanocomposite,
respectively.
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