Tratamento fotocatalítico de água contaminada com Escherichia coli utilizando eletrodos nanoporosos de Ti/TiO2

Abstract

Water contamination by bacteria addresses a threat to public health and indicate the quality in water treatment process. Photocatalytic processes have been reported as an efficient method to improve water disinfection and removal of other contaminants in water. Photocatalysts such as TiO2 and others are evaluated to the improvement of the photocatalysis. Thus, this study discusses photocatalytic treatment of water contaminated with Escherichia coli using nanoporous Ti/TiO2 as photocatalyst, which was obtained by sol-gel and dip-coating methods. The treatment was evaluated by sampling aliquots from 0 to 180 minutes and analyzing by spectroscopy at 600 nm. In the first 30 minutes, approximately 99% of removal was achieved, while photolysis achieved 98% after 60 minutes. These results were confirmed by bacteria growth on plates were the effects of the treatment on the remaining colonies were observed.