Degradation of methyl ester sulfonate using TiO2 photocatalyst

Abstract

One common domestic waste in the waters is detergent residue due to the daily habit of washing clothes. Thus, wastewater treatment is needed to purify the water. One of the methods is photocatalytic degradation. In this study, TiO2 nanoparticles were used to degrade methyl ester sulfonate (MES), one of the raw materials for making detergents. This study aims to investigate the effect of TiO2 concentration, reaction time, and light source on the MES degradation. The variations of the degradation tests included photocatalyst concentrations of 0.5, 1, and 1.5 mg/L, irradiation times of 1, 2, and 3 hours, and UV lamps and sunlight. The residual surfactant in water was analyzed using the Methylene Blue Active Surface (MBAS) method. The principle of this method is that MES will bind to methylene blue to form a complex blue compound so that its concentration can be quantified using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. This study showed that the higher photocatalyst concentration increased the surfactant degradation from 11.97% to 33.91%, and the longer the degradation time, the more surfactant was degraded up to 41.56% after 3 hours. The sunlight source produces 55.72% degradation, more than a 10-watt UV lamp. The MES degradation follows the second-order reaction equation with a rate constant of 0.0963 L/mg.hour.

Keywords

• methyl ester sulfonate, photodegradation, photocatalyst, tio2