Pharmaceutical wastes are emerging as water contaminants. Like other organic contaminants, it is
necessary to find safe and economic methods to remove them from the water. In this work, anthocyanin was
used as a natural dye sensitizer for the wide band gap nano-size rutile TiO
2
. The TiO
/Anthocyanin particles
were supported on activated carbon particle surfaces. The resulting composite, which was prepared and
characterized by different methods, was then used as a catalyst in the photodegradation of phenazopyridine
(a model pharmaceutical contaminant) under a solar simulated light. Depending on experimental conditions,
up to 90% of the contaminant was mineralized leaving no new organic products in the reaction mixture. The
results show the feasibility of using the activated carbon-supported TiO
2
2
/Anthocyanin photo-catalyst for
pharmaceutical contaminant removal in water. The natural dye anthocyanin readily sensitized the TiO
 to
visible light.  The un-supported TiO
, with its nano-size particles, was not easy to recover by simple
separation methods, while the activated carbon supported catalyst was easily isolated by decantation after
reaction cessation. Moreover, the recovered AC/TiO
2
 catalyst could also be regenerated by adding fresh
anthocyanin sensitizer after recovery for further reuse. Keeping the contaminant molecules closer to the
catalytic sites by adsorption, the support also enhanced the efficiency of photo-catalyst.
2

2

Title

Journal of Nanomaterials

Publisher

Hindawi Limited

Publisher Country

Egypt

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

1.871

Publication Type

Prtinted only

Volume

2018

Year

2018

Pages

--