Degradation of basic yellow auramine O-A textile dye by semiconductor photocatalysis

The photocatalytic degradation of textile dye, basic yellow auramine O was studied by a batch process using ZnO as the catalyst and sunlight as the il luminant. ZnO was characterized by XRD, IR, DRS and BET techniques. Zinc ox ide was found to be active tremendously in degrading the dye. In addition t o removing the colour from the dye solution, the COD was also reduced sugge sting that the fragments produced from the dye were mineralized. The proces s followed pseudo first order kinetics. The rate constant decreased with in crease in the initial concentration of dye. The effect of H2O2, Fenton's re agent and pH on the degradation of dye was also examined and the results we re discussed.