MICROWAVE PREPARATION AND APPLICATION OF ZnO-ZnFe2O4 COMPOSITE FOR PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION OF NAPHTHALENE IN OIL POLLUTION
MICROWAVE PREPARATION AND APPLICATION OF ZnO-ZnFe2O4 COMPOSITE FOR PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION OF NAPHTHALENE IN OIL POLLUTION
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2016-08
Authors
MAHMUD, Aminu Dikko
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Over the years, oil spillage has been precarious and most of the time unpredictable. It misbalances
the ecosystem directly and indirectly on a rampage scheme, claiming thousands of marine lives;
animals and plants and in some cases humans too. Whenever it occurs, the oil being less dense
than water floats on it, which simply means that there is no limit to the extend it goes as most of
the known part of the universe is connected by water. Conventional methods for tertiary oil spill
containment are often energy intensive and require huge amount of sorbents and dispersants and
in addition the methods do not destroy the pollutants in oil spills. In this work, ZnO-ZnFe2O4
composite was successfully synthesized using microwave combustion method. The molar ratio of
Fe to Zn in the composite is 0.16. X-Ray Diffraction Analysis (XRD) shows that the synthesized
ZnO-ZnFe2O4 composite is crystalline, and has very low crystallite sizes. The Scanning Electron
Microscopy (SEM) image indicates that the ZnO-ZnFe2O4 composite is highly porous material
with uniformly dispersed particles. Quadratic model was developed with R
2
value of 0.9993 and
adjusted R
2 value of 0.9985, respectively. ZnO-ZnFe2O4 dosage and initial concentration of
naphthalene have the largest effect on degradation process. The highest photocatalytic
degradation of naphthalene was achieved at salinity of zero (that is in fresh water). The predicted
optimum conditions for photocatalytic degradation of naphthalene using the ZnO-ZnFe2O4
composites are: initial naphthalene concentration of 16.8mg/L, ZnO-ZnFe2O4 dosage of 0.50 g/L,
and salinity of 0 ppt. The experimental and the predicted values of naphthalene degradation under
the predicted optimum values are 98.8 % and 99.04 % respectively. Hence, the developed
quadratic model is reliable for predicting photocatalytic degradation of naphthalene.
Description
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF
MASTERS OF SCIENCE DEGREE IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
Keywords
MICROWAVE PREPARATION,, APPLICATION OF ZnO-ZnFe2O4 COMPOSITE,, PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION,, NAPHTHALENE IN OIL POLLUTION