Degradation Study of C.I. Reactive Yellow 145 by Advanced Oxidation Process

Abstract

Synthetic dyes have great importance in textile industry, paper, pulp manufacturing, cosmetic, food, biological stains, printing, pharmaceutical industries and laboratories. The waste from these industries causes the water bodies to become coloured and disturb the natural growth activity of aquatic life by blocking sunlight and re-oxygenation capacity of water. Azo dyes are found to have their passage to drinking water that is harmful to humans as some of these dyes are carcinogenic and mutagenic in nature. It is thus necessary to remove them from water bodies or treat them in different ways, minimizing their hazardous effect to aquatic life as well as the human life. Azo dyes are very stable to ultraviolet and visible light irradiation. Moreover, they are resistant to aerobic degradation 1 and can be reduced to potentially carcinogenic aromatic amines under anaerobic conditions or in vivo 2 . About 1-20 % of the total synthetic dyes in the world is lost during the dyeing process and is released in the textile effluents Chlorination and ozonation have been used for the removal of certain dyes but they work at slow rates, as well as have high operating costs 5 . There is a dire need to establish method(s) to treat and eliminate pollutants from water and wastewater.