Superior photodegradation of bentazon and nile blue and their binary mixture using sol–Gel synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles under UV and sunlight sources

Herbicides and dyes in wastewater are considered serious water pollutants. These water pollutants have harmful effects on the ecosystem and due to this, the degradation of these pollutants is very important. In this article, titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were synthesized by the sol–gel method and used as photocatalysts. TiO2 powder was characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and UV-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. The XRD analysis revealed the anatase phase for TiO2. The SEM investigation showed that TiO2 nanoparticles exhibit highly irregular block-shaped morphology. TiO2 nanoparticles degrade the organic pollutants under UV as well as sunlight. The photocatalytic activity of such prepared catalyst was carried out in solutions of bentazon herbicide (BZ) and Nile blue dye (NB) and in the mixture of these pollutants, under UV and sunlight. The degradation rate of both BZ and NB was very high in individual solutions as well as in the combination of them. The obtained results show that TiO2 photocatalyst is a potential candidate for the photocatalytic degradation of dyes and herbicides under UV and sunlight.