Mechanistic investigations on sonophotocatalytic degradation of textile dyes with surface active solutes

Abstract

In recent years, two advanced oxidation processes, namely, photocatalysis and sonolysis have been extensively investigated for the degradation of recalcitrant organic pollutants. Simultaneous application of these two techniques, known as sonophotocatalysis has been found to give synergistic enhancement in degradation under specific experimental conditions. The present study attempts to establish the physical mechanism of sonophotocatalytic process by finding the synergy between two techniques that gives enhancement in degradation. Transient collapse of cavitation bubbles gives rise to light emission (known as sonoluminescence), which could provide activation of the photocatalyst. To test thi..