The lack of drinkable water in rural areas or in places affected by natural disasters, motivated us to develop an efficient way to obtain drinking water. In this work we will present the development of an autonomous and portable water purification plant, based on a supported TiO2 film reactor, to promote the photocatalytic disinfection of bacteria in water. It is concluded that the supported TiO2 film onto a polyethylene based reactor shows good photocatalytic disinfect water under laboratory conditions and land field experiments. At the laboratory, up to 6 orders of magnitude of E-coli were reduced in less than 30 min, whereas under real conditions, water contaminated with 3480 CFU/100 mL of wild bacteria colonies, the disinfection was reached in less than 15 min. This System could be used in places in which safe drinking water is not available, like in rural areas, or under situations in which access to water through centralized public services are temporarily suspended, as for example after a natural disaster.
In the present work, photocatalytic oxidation of Rhodamine B solutions were performed using a composite material prepared by titanium dioxide films deposited onto cobalt ferrite nanoparticles. Cobalt ferrite nanoparticles were prepared by coprecipitation of Co(II) and Fe(II) ions in basic medium, followed by a controlled oxidation process carried out by nitrate ions in basic medium in inert atmosphere at 95°C. The effect of 2 alcohols (ethanol and 2-propanol) as solvents in the deposition of TiO2 films was studied as a function of CoFe2O4/TiO2 mass ratios. Cobalt ferrite nanoparticles exhibited (36 ± 20) nm diameter with spheroidal shapes as confirmed by SEM studies. TiO2 films deposited onto CoFe2O4 were thicker using ethanol as solvent according to SEM and TEM studies. Cobalt ferrite nanoparticles exhibit a weak oxidation behaviour since around 40% of Rhodamine is eliminated after 90 min of exposition. The 4 composite materials studied oxidize 100% of Rhodamine B after 60 min of reaction and kinetics results fitted a second order degradation reaction equation. As Rhodamine B solution pH was 5.83, faster reactions occur when composite materials develop low surface charge (PZC closer to 5.83) due to small surface charge repulsion. Materials prepared with CoFe2O4/TiO2 ratios between 4 to 6 present higher kinetic constants which is confirmed by a faster Rhodamine B degradation
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