PREPARATION AND APPLICATION OF ZnOMULLITE FOR THE INACTIVATION OF ESCHERICHIA COLI AND SALMONELLA ENTERICA IN WATER

📄 Project Abstract

Several procedures are commonly used for water disinfection from bacteria. Unfortunately each procedure has its shortcomings. The most important shortcoming is the formation of disinfection by-products. Photodegradation of microorganisms using photocatalysts (such as ZnO) could be a good alternative. However, ZnO is a wide band gap (3.2 eV) semiconductor, and demands UV irradiations for excitation. In order make the synthesized ZnO active under visible light for the photo excitation, the ZnO must be supported. In this work, ZnO semiconductor particles, supported with mullite in varied proportion was developed (10%- ZnO/mullite, 20%-ZnO/mullite, 30%-ZnO/mullite, 40%-ZnO/mullite and 50%-ZnO/mullite) and synthesized by impregnation method followed by calcination at 1200 0C. Different concentrations (0.5g/L, 1g/L, 1.5g/L and 2g/L) of the synthesized photocatalyst were used to disinfect water and also toreduce the COD level under visible light irradiation. Between 90%-98% inactivation of E....