Iranian Journal of

BackgroundandObjectives: Dyes are organic compoundswith complex structures,which due to toxicity, carcinogenicity and nonbiodegredabity, this type of pollutants is one of the most important pollutants of the environment. The goal of this researchwas to study the feasibility of the application of solar irradiation in presence of potassium persulfate (K2S2O8) for the removal of Reactive blue19 (RB19) from synthetic wastewater.

 Materials and Methods:This research wascarri edoutin laboratory scalewith using of 200ml volume of batchphotoreactor.The effectsofoperatingparameters suchas concentrationofK2S2O8,pH,photoexposure time and preliminary concentrations of dye on decolorization have been evaluated.Different concentrations of pollutant inwastewaterwere prepared by solution of variousmasses of RB19 on tapwater. The reactors were exposedwith natural solar irradiation as aUVAsource from11 amto 14 pm.Themaximumabsorbtion wave length of this dye (!max) was determined by spectrophotometer (Unico, 2100). The measurement of dye concentrations was determined with using of standard curve and its best line equation

Results:Analysis of absorbtion spectra showed that the !max of RB19 is 592 nm. The average intensity of the UVA irradiated from solar system was 54.6 µW/Cm2. The results of decolorization process showed that 38.2%of this dye can be removed within 3 hr in the presence of potassium persulfate and decreasing of pH leads to the elevation of dye removal efficiency. Based on these findings, the efficiency of dye removal with 3h photoexposure time and pH ranges of 4,6 and 8 were found to be 98.2 88.5 and 78.5%, respectively.Also, the results showed that increasing of K2S2O8 dosage leads to elevation of dye removal efficiency in 3h photoexposure time and K2S2O8 dosages within 1-5mmol/L, with the removal efficiency of 75,86,92,95 and 98.5%, respectively.Analysis of data indicates that the kinetic of the removal of RB19 with this process is a first order reaction which its rate constant is 0.01min-1.

Conclusion: Due to the operation problems presented in heterogeneous photocatalitical processes such as catalysts separation and high costs of operation and maintenance of these processes caused by manmade sources of irradiations homogeneous photocatalitical process with using of potassium persulfate associated with natural solar irradiation can be used as a suitable process for the removal of dyes from textile industries wastewaters.