RETRACTED ARTICLE: Kinetic and anion degradation products study on photocatalytic degradation of reactive orange 5 solution with phosphotungstic acid

Increasing environmental pollution caused by toxic dyes is a matter of great concern due to their hazardous nature. So it is crucial to develop processes which can destroy these dyes effectively. It has been generally agreed that reactive orange 5 (KGN) can be effectively degraded in aerated phosphotungstic acid (HPA) in a homogeneous reaction system using near-UV irradiation. In this paper, photocatalytic degradation of reactive orange 5 solutions with phosphotungstic acid was investigated, especially more attention was paid to the kinetic model and the anion degradation products. The results revealed that the photocatalytic degradation reaction of KGN with HPA in a homogenous solution can be described by Langmuir-Hinshelwood equation and Langmuir-Hinshewood kinetic model described it well. The reaction manifested the first order with lower concentration(⩽30 mg L⁻¹) with the limiting rate constant and the adsorption constant in this case being 0.8098 mg L⁻¹ min⁻¹ and 4.359 10⁻² L mg⁻¹, respectively. The degradation mechanism of KGN with HPA is different from that with TiO₂, the anion products of the two reaction systems are the same. The difference in degradation mechanism of KGN with HPA from that with TiO₂ is caused by the nature of the photocatalyst.