Radiation-Induced Degradation of Congo Red Dye over Unsupported and Activated Carbon-Supported Strontium Oxide Nanoparticles

The textile industry produces a significant amount of liquid effluent pollutants due to the vast amounts of water used in fabric processing. This has resulted in significant water pollution worldwide. The reduction of these dye compounds from industrial wastewater has been achieved using chemical, physical, and biological methods. However, these approaches are time-consuming, costly, and pose disposal problems. Currently, photocatalytic degradation by nanoparticles is attracting significant attention.  In this regard, Activated carbon supported and unsupported SrO nanoparticles were synthesized by the wet chemical co-precipitation method. The nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, and FT-IR. The Strontium oxide (SrO) and Activated carbon-supported Strontium oxide (Ac/SrO) nanoparticles (NPs) were used as photocatalysts for the photodegradation of Congo red dye in an aqueous medium under UV irradiation. The unsupported SrO and AC/SrO NPs degraded about 93.3% and 97.6% of the dye, respectively, within 100 minutes of irradiation time. The maximum degradation of the dye was achieved at pH 4, 0.06 g of catalyst dose, 15 ppm dye concentration, and a temperature of 45℃. The data were best fitted with pseudo-first-order kinetics. The activity of the recovered catalyst was also examined.