SUNLIGHT ASSIATED DEGRADATION OF BENTAZON HERBICIDE IN AN AQUEOUS SUSPENSION USING ZnGeO3

Ashok V. Borhade; Yogeshwar R. Baste; Vishwas B. Gaikwad

Volume : IV, Issue : XI, November - 2014

SUNLIGHT ASSIATED DEGRADATION OF BENTAZON HERBICIDE IN AN AQUEOUS SUSPENSION USING ZnGeO3

Ashok V. Borhade, Yogeshwar R. Baste, Vishwas B. Gaikwad

Abstract :

This study focuses on photocatalytic degradation of bentazon herbicide in an aqueous suspension of ZnGeO3 under sunlight. The photocatalyst, ZnGeO3, was successfully synthesized by a green chemistry approach with mechanochemical method. The synthesized photocatalyst was characterized by using various analytical techniques like UV–DRS, FTIR, XRD, TEM, SEM, BET surface area and TG. The XRD confirm phase purity of photocatalyst and TEM shows average crystal size of 25 nm. The UV diffused reflectance spectrum shows monodispersity and lower particle size with band gap energy 3.44 eV. The BET surface area and BJS pore volume was evaluated to be 32.06 m2/g and 0.02308 cc/g respectively. The photocatalyst was observed thermally stable over a wide range of temperature. The aim of this work is to address the photocatalytic degradation of bentazon, herbicide, in an aqueous suspension using ZnGeO3 under stimulated sunlight. The intensity of sunlight during the course of experiment was 0.01096 W/cm2 to 0.0137 W/cm2