Decolorization of crystal violet over TiO2 and TiO2 doped with zirconia photocatalysts

Titania based catalyst and TiO 2 doped with zirconia were prepared by modified sol–gel method. The synthesized catalysts samples were characterized by BET, XRD, SEM and FTIR techniques. Photocatalytic activity was tested in the reaction of crystal violet (CV) dye decolorization/decomposition under UV light irradiation. The effect of several operational parameters, such as catalyst dosage, initial dye concentrations, duration of UV irradiation treatment and number of reaction cycles were also considered. The obtained results indi­cated faster dye decolorization with the increase of the catalyst amount and a decrease of initial CV concentrations. An influence of doping with zirconia on the physico-chemical pro­perties of bare titania was studied. The doping procedure had affected photocatalytic pro­perties of the final catalytic material, and had improved photocatalytic performances of doped catalyst on crystal violet decolorization/degradation in comparison to bare titania.