Quantum efficiency of cyanide photooxidation with TiO2/SiO2 catalysts: Multivariate analysis by experimental design

Comprehensive Kinetics of the Photocatalytic Degradation of Emerging Pollutants in a LED-Assisted Photoreactor. S-Metolachlor as Case Study

Although the potential and beneficial characteristics of photocatalysis in the degradation of a good number of emerging pollutants have been widely studied and demonstrated, process design and scale-up are restrained by the lack of comprehensive models that correctly describe the performance of photocatalytic reactors. Together with the kinetics of degradation reactions, the distribution of the radiation field in heterogeneous photocatalytic systems is essential to the optimum design of the technology. Both the Local Volumetric Rate of Photon Absorption (LVRPA) and the Overall Volumetric Rate of Photon Absorption (OVRPA) help to understand this purpose. This work develops a Six-Flux radiation absorption–scattering model coupled to the Henyey–Greenstein scattering phase function to evaluate the LVRPA profile in a LED-assisted photocatalytic reactor. Moreover, the OVRPA has been calculated and integrated into the kinetic equation, accounting for the influence of the radiation distribution on the reaction rate. The model has been validated with experimental data for the degradation of S-Metolachlor (MTLC), and the set of operating variables that maximize the reactor performance, 0.5 g/L of TiO2 P25 and pH 3, has been determined.

Recent Developments in the Photocatalytic Treatment of Cyanide Wastewater: An Approach to Remediation and Recovery of Metals

For gold extraction, the most used extraction technique is the Merrill-Crow process, which uses lixiviants as sodium or potassium cyanide for gold leaching at alkaline conditions. The cyanide ion has an affinity not only for gold and silver, but for other metals in the ores, such as Al, Fe, Cu, Ni, Zn, and other toxic metals like Hg, As, Cr, Co, Pb, Sn, and Mn. After the extraction stage, the resulting wastewater is concentrated at alkaline conditions with concentrations up to 1000 ppm of metals. Photocatalysis is an advanced oxidation process (AOP) able to generate a photoreaction in the solid surface of a semiconductor activated by light. Although it is well known that photocatalytic processes can remove metals in solution, there are no compilations about the researches on photocatalytic removal of metals in wastewater with cyanide. Hence, this review comprises the existing applications of photocatalytic processes to remove metal and in some cases recover cyanide from recalcitrant wastewater from gold extraction. The use of this process, in general, requires the addition of several scavengers in order to force the mechanism to a pathway where the electrons can be transferred to the metal-cyanide matrices, or elsewhere the entire metallic cyanocomplex can be degraded by an oxidative pathway.

Braiding kinetics and spectroscopy in photo-catalysis: the spectro-kinetic approach

The combination of kinetic and spectroscopic tools has become a key scientific methodology for the understanding of catalytic behavior but its application in photocatalysis has inherent difficulties due to the nature of the energy source of the reaction. This review article provides an overview of its use by, first, presenting mechanistically derived kinetic formulations and spectroscopic data handling methods including intrinsic expressions for light and, second, highlighting representative examples of application. To do it we consider universal catalytic systems, particularly (although not exclusively) titania-based materials, and the most frequent hole and/or electron triggered reaction schemes. This review also provides a general framework to pave the way for the future progress of the spectro-kinetic approach in the photocatalysis area.