Photocatalytic degradation of glyphosate using TiO2/Al2O3/CNT

Abstract

Excessive use of glyphosate in agriculture has a negative impact on the environment because it causes runoff, which affects water sources and causes pollution. Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) is the method for resolving water contamination concerns, and photocatalytic degradation using TiO2/Al2O3/CNT nanocomposites has been observed to be a reliable solution for degrading glyphosate. The photocatalyst of TiO2/Al2O3/CNT nanocomposite was prepared using various ratios which were 70:20:10, 70:29:1 and 70:30:0. These photocatalysts TiO2/Al2O3/CNT were prepared using hydrothermal process. The prepared TiO2/Al2O3/CNT photocatalyst nanocomposite has been applied to degrade glyphosate in order to assess its performance. Hence, the effect of initial glyphosate concentration and amount of photocatalyst used during photocatalytic degradation of glyphosate were investigated. This study found that 20 mg of 70:30:0 ratio TiO2/Al2O3/CNT nanocomposite photocatalyst gave the highest percentage degradation of 5 mg/L of glyphosate which was 84.9%. The lowest degradation percentage for 5 mg/L of glyphosate was 68.2% using the 5 mg of ratio 70:20:10 TiO2/Al2O3/CNT nanocomposite photocatalyst. Finally, the prepared photocatalyst was beneficial in degrading herbicide.