Photocatalytic transformation of methylene blue and Cr(VI) in the presence of EDTA using a hydrogel of tara gum containing TiO2 nanoparticles

MARIBEL LUNA; FLORINELLA MUÑOZ; M.I. LITTER

Conferencia; Fifth Iberoamerican Conference on Advanced Oxidation Technologies ? CIPOA; 2022

A hydrogel from tara gum (TG), acrylamide (Aam), and methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) was obtained by graft copolymerization using the free radical method with the inclusion of TiO2 P25 nanoparticles in the network of the hydrogel. The hydrogel was characterized by the gel fraction and the grade of swelling. The maximum gel fraction achieved was 94% and the highest swelling grade was 1011%. The hydrogel was used to remove 1.56 × 10-2 mM methylene blue (MB) and 0.8 mM Cr(VI) in the presence of 1 mM EDTA from aqueous solutions under UV-C radiation. The highest dye removal efficiency (93%) was reached under UV light irradiation for 6 h. The maximum Cr(VI) removal (98%) was achieved after 2 h of UV exposure. The hydrogel presented good performance in three consecutive removal cycles for MB (89%) and for Cr(VI) (97%) showing to be a promising TiO2 supporting material for photocatalytic transformation processes.