Paper Title
PREPARATION OF NANO TIO2 COATED LOW IRON CRUSHED GLASS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION WITH LARGESCALE APPLICATION

Abstract
Abstract - The high demand for water treatment and environmental restoration via advanced oxidation process (AOP) has estimated the increased production of titanium dioxide-based materials. The sol-gel process is a widely used chemical wet method for preparing nano TiO2 gels with numerous applications and advantages. Besides, support selection for the film coating plays an important role in the final product applicability. In this work, small size pieces (3-6 mm) of recycled low iron crushed glass were coated with multiple layers of nano TiO2 film via sol-gel method for photocatalytic degradation of selected contaminants in a packed-bed reactor under the exposure of UV light. Coating characteristics, morphology, phase, and surface area were characterized via SEM, XRD, and BET analysis. Single and multiple annealing processes were examined for thin film adherence maximization. Spectrophotometer was used for transmittance examination. For adherence and durability, sonication bath tests were performed at different times. Results revealed that low iron crushed glass can be an excellent support for TiO2 film coating with high transmittance (83% after 3 layers of coating) and a BET of 0.056 m2/g. XRD results showed 95-97% anatase phase of nano TiO2 with average particle size of 10 nm after different rounds of annealing at 550 °C in muffle. As for the durability, 15, 27, and 41% coating removal were recorded after 15, 30, and 60 minutes of sonication. The technique seems promising to be applied on large scale for pretreated industrial or pharmaceutical ponds wastewater treatment. Keywords - BET, Crushed glass, Coating, Nano TiO2, SEM, Sol-gel, Sonication, XRD.