Abstract
In this document, the photocatalytic activity of TiO2/Fe3O4, prepared by the mixing of the pure oxides, was studied. The photocatalytic degradation of aqueous Methylene Blue (MB) solutions (10 and 30 ppm) was performed, the TiO2/Fe3O4 catalysts in 80/20, 50/50 and 20/80 mass ratios were used during the test, artificial sunlight and natural solar radiation were tested at laboratory and pilot plant scale respectively. Besides, the kinetic reactions were evaluated according to the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model, the apparent velocity constants (kapp) were obtained for the TiO2/Fe3O4 catalysts. In the laboratory test, the TiO2/Fe3O4 catalyst (80/20) had a performance for 93.04% of discoloration, kapp = 0.0238 min-1, while for TiO2/Fe3O4 (50/50, 20/80) had an 83.46%, 65.00% for discoloration of MB and the kapp values were 0.0154 min-1 and 0.0098 min-1, respectively. In the solar test at pilot scale, the percentages of discoloration of 24.32%, and 57.78%, with kapp values of 0.00037 min-1, 0.00121 min-1 respectively were obtained for TiO2/Fe3O4 (80/20), a MB solution of 30 ppm, a load of 0.1 g/L and 0.3 g/L of the catalyst respectively.