Photocatalysis in water treatment processes | Fotokataliza u procesima tretmana voda

This monograph is primarily concerned with the importance of the application of the processes of photocatalytic degradation of water pollutants. In the recent several years, the criteria of environmental protection have become more stringent, with the aim of reducing emission of pollutants. Great problem is the already polluted water, air and soil, whose natural remediation is hindered or impossible. Photocatalytic degradation is a widely used method when dealing with purification of waste waters and air contaminated by both organic and inorganic pollutants. The monograph presents the results of investigation of efficiency of a number of catalysts, synthesized in the different ways, on the examples of degradation of a large number of organic pollutants, among which the most important place belongs to pesticides. The rates of pesticides degradation were studied using TiO2, either undoped or doped with various contents of metallic and non-metallic dopants and compared with the efficiency of commercial TiO2 Degussa P25. The emphasis is put on the application of doped catalysts from the practical point of view, as this enables the use of visible light that is solar radiation, in photocatalytic processes. Besides, the monograph gives an extensive survey of the literature, pointing out the influence of numerous factors on the efficiency of degradation, such as the initial concentration and nature of the reactant, type of the electron acceptor and its concentration, solution pH, mass concentration and type of the photocatalyst, temperature, catalyst particle size, reactor configuration, intensity of UV light, ionic strength, etc. Special attention is paid to the type of the mechanism and kinetics of degradation, as well as to the influence of the structure of the substrate on the rate of its removal. All the mentioned results contribute to the possibility of improving the efficiency of treatment of waste waters, drinking water, surface and ground waters, as well as to the preparation of ultrapure water suitable for the pharmaceutical industry and microelectronics. Besides, sunlight can serve as a natural source of radiation, making these processes very attractive, which is of special importance for the area of industrial management. Because of that, a special chapter is devoted to the different possibilities of the application of the degradation processes in real conditions, by presenting some concrete solutions concerning solar plants for water treatment.