Study on photocatalytic oxidation for determination of chemical oxygen demand using a nanoTiO2–K2Cr2O7 system

A photocatalytic method for the determination of chemical oxygen demand (COD) using a nano-TiO2–K2Cr2O7 system is described. The measuring principle is based on direct determination of the change of Cr(III) concentration resulting from photocatalytic oxidation of organic compounds and simultaneous photocatalytic reduction of stoichiometrically involved K2Cr2O7 in the solution. The operation conditions were optimized. The determinative COD value using this method was calculated from the absorbance of Cr(III). The operational characteristics of this method were demonstrated by use of a standard glucose solution as substrate. This method was also applied to the determination of the COD of wastewater samples. The results were in good agreement with those from the conventional (i.e., dichromate) COD methods.