Synthesis of Lycopene TiO2 Nanoparticle complex and development of lycopene TiO2 incorporated photocatalytic membrane for dye degradation

Abstract

Recently membrane technology gained attention among the researchers for the treatment of wastewater. Membranes are prepared with more than one layer in order to achieve better properties. Among the fabrication methods, the electrospinning and phase inversion techniques are widely used due to their easy production of membranes. Apart from their several advantages, these two widely used methods possesses disadvantages such as low compaction resistance and lack of mechanical strength in electrospinning technique and low flux and high fouling in phase inversion technique which limits their application. newlinePhotocatalysts are the materials which accelerates the chemical reaction to occur by absorbing the light energy. Among the existing semiconductor photocatalysts, titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2) are extensively used because of their advantages such as low cost, easy availability, non-toxic and eco-friendly. The disadvantages of TiO2 are active only under UV irradiation and difficult to recover after the photocatalytic process which limits their usage. newlineIn this thesis, the photocatalytic membrane was fabricated for dye degradation in order to overcome the above mentioned disadvantages. The membrane was fabricated with lycopene-TiO2 nanoparticle complex by different techniques such as electrospinning, phase inversion and combination of both the electrospinning and phase inversion technique for Congo red dye degradation. newline