Acta Microscopica, Vol. 18, Supp. C, 2009
233
TiO2 NANOPARTICLE THIN FILMS AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN FOR PHOTOCATALYTIC TREATMENT OF DDT CONTAMINATED WATER Shivangi Sinha1, 2, Ana Bertha Soto Guzmán3 Natalia Gabriela Tapia Orozco2, Ciro Falcony Guajardo3, Refugio Rodríguez-Vázquez2. 1. Amity Institute of Nanotechnology, Amity University, Sec – 125 Noida, India . 2. Departamento de Biotecnología y Bioingeniería, CINVESTAV, Avenue I.P.N 2508, Mexico. 3. Departamento de Física, CINVESTAV-IPN, Avenue I.P.N 2508, Mexico D.F. e-mail:
[email protected] ,
[email protected]
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) due to its various applications such as self cleaning, self sterilizing and anti fogging surfaces are extensively used .The thin films are widely used for water and air purification due to its environmental friendly surface treatment [1]. Titania is partially reduced during illumination with UV light in presence of organic compound [2]. 1, 1, 1- trichloro-2, 2bis (p-chlorophenyl) ethane (DDT) is a toxic pollutant which is cumulative in nature that affects the body system. Since the DDT containers are not disposed off well or even cleaned according to mexican normativity it adds to the environmental pollution. The use of surfactants increases the pesticides removal from the containers that can be degraded through remediation by photocatalysis. So we propose to treat the DDT contaminated water by TiO2 /UV mediated photocatalysis by using surfactant (Surfox). A photocatalytic reactor was used with TiO2 thin film glass substrates and UV illumination. Different conditions were analyzed for TiO2 thin films on glass substrate [3]. The thin films done by sonicating the glass substrate in a suspension of TiO2 in methanol (5% w/v) and annealing at 450°C for 1 hr in air to achieve cohesion and adhesion of the particles to the substrate was found to give the best result. The cycle was repeated to get a homogenous film on the substrate. A first order experimental design (22 factorial) to optimize the DDT degradation was setup and the equation was fitted by a standard regression procedure. The results were treated with an experimental model which related to the responses measured. The model correlated well with the measured data and was statistically significant (p
