Estudo da atividade fotocatalítica e antimicrobiana de TiO2 dopada com Fe+3 e Pb+2 obtidas via método sonoquímico

Abstract

Water pollution is a subject frequently approached today. With population growth, industries and the depletion of drinking water, it is necessary to take socioenvironmental measures so that the effluents disposed does not cause damages to the environment and society. Advanced oxidative processes (AOPs) are an effective alternative to the degradation of organic pollutants and have been widely used because of their potential to clean effluents. TiO2 is a very abundant material in the earth's crust and has good photocatalytic properties, especially when coupled with metal and/or semi-metallic dopants and co-dopants, being commonly used for waste treatment. In this work, TiO2 nanoparticles were doped and co-doped with iron and lead, using different concentrations of dopant ions. The samples were prepared by the sonochemical method and didn’t require a subsequent heat treatment. The phases were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), the particle morphologies analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the optical properties by UV-Vis spectroscopy (UV-Vis) and surface area by BET method. The photocatalytic activity was verified by the degradation of methylene blue dye (MB) irradiated by UV radiation and sunlight radiation and the antimicrobial activity compared to gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli). The XRD patterns exhibited only the anatase phase of TiO2, even using the maximum percentage of dopants. TEM analysis showed that the particles of pure TiO2 are agglomerated and that with the addition of the Fe+3 ion these particles are deagglomerated. UV-Vis analysis showed that the addition of dopants in the titania lattice reduces the band energy (Egap) and surface area decreased with the introduction of dopants. The results of the photocatalysis tests indicated that the addition of dopants and co-dopants improved photocatalytic activity for compositions with concentrations below 1% in UV light and up to 1% in sunlight. The antimicrobial activity was also investigated and samples TiO2:1%Fe:3%Pb, TiO2:1% Pb:1%Fe and TiO2:1%Pb:3%Fe showed a zone of inhibition, indicating the antibacterial effect of the samples synthesized.