Study of Ibuprofen Degradation by Photocatalysis Using Electroless Deposited Zero Valent Iron on TiO2-Pd as a Catalyst

Ibuprofen concentration level in the groundwater, river and waste water has been increasing over time. This may affect the aquatic environment in ways that may threaten the growth of some species of aquatic life, in some cases mutilation of the organisms including those that are a part of our daily diet like Oreochromis Niloticus (tilapia). To prevent this, there is a need to degrade Ibuprofen into less toxic components that can exist in nature. Zero valent iron nanoparticles have been used and found to be excellent material for the degradation of many halogenated organic compounds for environmental remediation. In the present work, titanium dioxide was used as a support for the deposition of zero valent iron that was used to degrade IBP. The photocatalytic activity of TiO2 for the degradation of IBP was compared to those of Pd-catalyzed TiO2 and TiO2 deposited with zero-valent iron nanoparticles at different deposition times. The results show that the TiO2 deposited with zero-valent iron for 90 minutes provided the highest degradation of IBP with complete degradation of IBP. The reason for the high performance of the 90 minute zero-valent iron was explained as the decrease in primary particle size upon suspension in IBP solution weakening the chances to form aggregates and weak agglomerates compared to TiO2-Pd and TiO2 catalysts. Increase in ZVI from the electroless deposition has increased the cations Fe2+ and Fe3+ in the IBP solution facilitating for the increase of photocatalytic activity of TiO2 allowing to perform degradation of IBP better than the other two catalysts.