page_title: Industrial dye degradation
section_title: Photocatalysis
hierarchical_section_title: Industrial dye degradation / Photocatalysis
caption_attribution_description: English: Photocatalysis dye degredation
context_page_description: Synthetic dyes are found in a wide range of products such as clothes, leather accessories, and furniture. These dyes are commonly used every day. However, a side effect of their widespread use is that up to 12% of these dyes are wasted during the dying process and about 20% of this wastage enters the environment.
  Dye degradation is a process in which the large dye molecules are broken down chemically into smaller molecules. The resulting products are water, carbon dioxide, and mineral byproducts that give the original dye its color. During the dyeing process, not all of the dye molecules are used. The water waste that the industry releases contains a percentage of these dye molecules. Dye molecules persist in the environment because many of them are not reactive towards light, acids, bases and oxygen. The color of the material becomes permanent.
context_section_description: Heterogeneous photocataylsis is a widely accepted technique of choice for environmental purification. The standard experimental set up for dye degradation photocatalysis is by using a UV lamp to provide energy for the creation of oxidizing radicals. Photocatalysis is the addition of light to a semiconductor oxide/sulphide that results in electrons moving from the valence band to the conduction band. The electron-hole pairs formed will react with oxygen and water molecules to create superoxide anions and hydroxide radicals that have increased oxidizing and reducing abilities to be used on numerous industrial dye compounds.
caption: Standard photocatalysis set-up
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