A Comparative Study on Chemical and Electrochemical Degradation of Reactive Blue 4 Dye

• Main Author: Carneiro,Patricia A.
• Publication Date: 2003
• Other Authors: Fugivara,Cecílio S., Nogueira,Raquel F. P., Boralle,Nivaldo, Zanon,Maria V. B.
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0872-19042003000100004
• topic: anthraquinone dyes; electro-reduction; electro-oxidation; Photo-Fenton; Reactive Blue 4

The degradation of a reactive blue 4 dye in acidic solution has been compared using electrochemical reduction and oxidation at reticulated vitreous carbon electrode (RVC) and Ti/SnO2/SbOx (3%mol)/RuO2 (30%mol) electrodes and photo-Fenton method under UV irradiation. The reduction of RB4 dye at -0.6 V on RVC electrode results in 50% of color removal and up to 64% of TOC removal. The direct oxidation of RB4 dye at +1 V on RVC promotes only the oxidation of amine group and there is no color removal. On SnO2 electrode, 58% TOC was removed and the decolorization is around 100 % after 1 hour of electrolysis at 2.4 V indicating good efficiency. Best performance was obtained by photo-Fenton method that indicates 80% elimination of TOC and 100% of color removal but the method requires oxidant addition and time of rest to remove the generated residues.