Aqueous degradation kinetics of pharmaceutical drug diclofenac by photo catalysis using nano structured titania–zirconia composite catalyst

Diclofenac is an anti-inflammatory pharmaceutical drug and its presence in a trace amount in waste water makes severe environmental pollution. The degradation of diclofenac was investigated by a photo catalytic process in presence of ultra violet irradiation at room temperature using titania and titania-zirconia nano composite catalysts in a batch reactor. The composite catalyst was prepared by sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy as well as BET surface area analyzer. The effect of various process parameters such as catalyst loading, initial concentration of diclofenac and p H of the experimental solution was observed on the degradation of diclofenac. The titania-zirconia nano composites exhibited reasonably higher photo catalytic activity than that of anatase form of titania without zirconia. The maximum removal of diclofenac of about 92.41% was achieved using Zr/Ti mass ratio of 11.8 wt% composite catalyst. A rate equation was proposed for the degradation of diclofenac using the composite catalyst. The values of rate constant (kc) and adsorption equilibrium constant (K1) were found to vary with the catalyst content in the reaction mixture.