Mojeed Olalekan Bello

Title : Photo-degradation of methylene blue dye using TiO2 enhanced by adsorptive properties of Zeolite-Y

Abstract:

The significance of surface adsorption in catalysis inspired this present study. Here in, we reported the impact of the adsorptive property of zeolite-Y as a support for TiO₂ (Zeo-Y/TiO₂) to enhance its photo-degradation activity on methylene blue (MB) dye. The composites of zeolite/TiO₂ were prepared with 25%, 50% and 75% of zeolite-Y by solid-state dispersion/grinding methods. Instrumentation like FTIR, XRD, SEM and TEM were used to confirm the successful introduction of zeolite into the structure of TiO₂. The photo-degradation activity of the various zeolite/TiO₂ composites and 100%TiO₂ on MB was investigated for 150 min. The various Zeo-Y/TiO₂ composites showed enhanced degradation efficiency at the dark stage when there was no light irradiation (within 0 and 30 min). At this stage, 16.27% MB was degraded by100%TiO₂ whereas 44.13%, 55.34% and 31.34% of the same concentration of MB were degraded by Zeo-Y25/TiO₂, Zeo-Y50/TiO₂ and Zeo-Y75/TiO₂ respectively. During the light irradiation (within 30 and 120 min), the composites Zeo-Y50/TiO₂ and Zeo-Y75/TiO₂ were leading with 5.73% efficiency. The photocatalyst with 50% zeolite as support (Zeo-Y50/TiO₂) has the best performance of 98.92% over TiO₂ alone with 96.45% at the end of the photo-degradation process. The kinetic study of the process confirmed the better efficiency of Zeo-Y50/TiO₂ with a rate constant (k₁) of 0.02446 mim^-1 as compared to TiO₂ alone with 0.01999 min^-1.  It was concluded that the adsorptive properties of zeolite improved the activities of TiO₂ resulting in better degradation efficiency. The degradation of dye-containing effluent can be achieved within a short period and consequently lower the cost of the process in terms of energy consumption

Audience Take Away

• The audience in the field of environmental catalysis will learn simple and enhanced degradation processes.
• It will assist experts in the field to lower the cost of photo-degradation process
• The theoretical explanation in the presentation will also aid the audience's research and teaching
• The knowledge to be contributed during the presentation will also provide practical solutions to industrial problems.
• This will eventually simplify and enhance the treatment of dye-laden industrial effluent through photo-degradation.

Biography:

Dr. Mojeed Olalekan Bello studied Chemistry at the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. He completed his M.Sc. Chemistry in 2014. He then joined the service of the University of Ilorin in 2015 as an Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Chemistry (Analytical/Environmental Unit). He was awarded a Ph.D. Chemistry in 2023 at the same University. He is a TWAS fellow at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, India He has over 8 years of experience in teaching, research and community development. He has successfully supervised over 35 project students with more than 15 publications as some of his achievements.