Seyed Hamed Meraji

In this study, the performance of two synthesized photocatalysts (Ni-FSM-16 and TiO2-FSM-16) to remove phenol red dye was investigated and compared. XRD, Fe-SEM, BET analyzes were used to indicate the performance of the catalysts as well as the substrate (FSM-16). The active levels of Ni-FSM-16 and TiO2-FSM-16 photocatalysts were 718.63 m2/g and 844.93 m2/g, respectively. All experiments were performed at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure under UV (20 W) and sunlight. Factors of dye concentration (20-80 mg/L), nanophotocatalyst concentration (0-8 g/L), and exposure duration of UV light (20 W) and sunlight (0-160 min) were tested. The experiments were designed by RSM software. TiO2-FSM-16 showed better dye removal performance than Ni-FSM-16. The maximum efficiencies in dye removal by TiO2-FSM-16 under UV light )20 W( and sunlight were 87% and 60%, respectively. While the maximum efficiency of Ni-FSM-16 catalyst in removing dye under UV light (20 W) and sunlight was 76% and 47%, respectively. The study of the reusability of catalysts was done up to 7 cycles, but they can only be reused effectively for up to three cycles. The catalysts in this study had a suitable surface and acceptable efficiency in phenol red removal.