Photocatalytic Degradation of Quinol and Blue FFS Acid Using TiO₂ and Doped TiO₂

The photodegradation of the model compounds Quinol, an aromatic organic compound and Acid blue FFS, an acid dye of chemical class Triphenylmethane was studied by using illumination with UV lamp of light intensity 250W. $TiO_2$ and $TiO_2$ doped with Boron and Nitrogen was used as catalyst. The sol-gel method was followed with titanium isopropoxide as precursor and doping was done using Boron and Nitrogen. In photocatalytic degradation, $TiO_2$ and doped $TiO_2$ dosage, UV illumination time and initial concentration of the compounds were changed and examined in order to determine the optimal experimental conditions. Operational time was optimized for 360 min. The optimum dosage of $TiO_2$ and BN doped $TiO_2$ was obtained to be 2 $mgL^{-1}$ and 2.5 $mgL^{-1}$ respectively. Maximum degradation % for quinol and Blue FFS acid dye was 78 and 95 respectively, at the optimum dosage of BN-doped $TiO_2$ catalyst. It was 10 and 4% higher than when undoped $TiO_2$ catalyst was used.