Aghareed M. Tayeb¹, Dina S. Hussein^1,

The Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye (MB) was studied using Titanate nanoparticles catalyst under UV light in a tubular reactor. Titanate nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrothermal reaction using TiO₂ and NaOH as the precursors and calcinations at 500°C for 4 hr. The products were characterized with TEM and XRD. The parameters studied are Titanate nanoparticles catalyst dosage, initial concentration of dye and pH of the reaction mixture. The degradation of dye was found to be effective in the range: catalyst dose 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 g catalyst/ 400 mL of dye solution, initial dye concentration 5, 10, 15 ppm and pH of reaction mixture 1.4, 7, 12.6. Experimentation on different concentrations of TiO₂ nanoparticles showed that 0.2 g TiO₂/ 400 ml of effluent is the most suitable catalyst concentration. Photocatalytic processes were found to work better in basic medium and the present study showed that the best pH value was 12.6. The effect of the initial methylene blue concentration on the percentage degradation was also studied, demonstrating that the degradation of methylene blue generally increased when decreasing its concentration. The results showed that a percentage methylene blue degradation of 97.6% could be obtained when treating an effluent with 5 ppm of methylene blue for 90 minutes at 0.2 g TiO₂/ 400 ml of effluent and pH 12.6. This corresponds to 97.2% degradation when working on an effluent with 10 ppm methylene blue and 93%, when treating an effluent with 15 ppm of methylene blue for 90 minutes.

hydrothermal reaction, Titanate nanoparticles, photocatalytic degradation, methylene blue