Investigation of photocatalytic removal and photonic efficiency of maxilon blue dye GRL in the presence of TiO2 nanoparticles

TiO₂ nanoparticles have been synthesized by solvent-free hydrothermal process. TiO₂ nanoparticles were annealed at 500°C for enhancing the characterization and the photocatalytic activity. The synthesized TiO₂ was characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), BET, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DR) techniques to study the morphology and structural configuration. The effects of different parameters such as the initial dye concentration, catalyst concentration, pH of the solution, light intensity, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) on relative photonic efficiencies and photocatalytic degradation kinetics of GRL were investigated, and the degradation of GRL follows pseudo-first order kinetics according to the Langmuir–Hinshelwood model. The ROS studies indicate that hydroxyl radicals and holes are the predominant reactive species within the same step, contributing up to 92.64%, hydroxyl radicals participate for about 55%, and holes share for about 37.64% in the photocatalytic degradation of GRL.