Characterization and Performance of New Heterogeneous Sonocatalyst

Two different types of titanium precursor i.e. potassium titanium oxalate and tetrabutyl orthotitanate were used to investigate the characteristics and catalytic performance of Fe-TiO2 supported zeolite. The activity of the catalyst was tested for the degradation of amaranth dye under ultrasonic irradiation with output power of 50 W and 40 kHz frequency.The XRD results indicated that the type of titanium precursor significantly effects on the crystallinity of the produced catalysts. The AFM results detected a drastic reductions in the roughness of the catalyst synthesized using potassium titanium oxalate compared to the catalyst synthesized using tetrabutyl orthotitanate as titanium precursor. The reusability and stability of the produced catalysts were investigated after three consecutive cycles. The results revealed that the catalyst synthesized using tetrabutyl orthotitanate was able to keep its high efficiency with minor drop in catalytic activity to about 90% compared to that using potassium titanium oxalate with catalytic activity of 24% after three consecutive cycles.

Atheel H. Alwash Studied B.Sc.& M.Sc. at Department of Chemical Engineering at Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad-Iraq (1996-2002), Studied Phd at School of Chemical Engineering at University Sains Malaysia (2010-2013).