Determination and removal of methylene blue dye via photodegradation using titanium dioxide nanoparticles from watermelon rind

Water pollution poses significant threats to the environment and human health, applications of photodegradation technology offer a promising solution for mitigating these impacts by utilizing light energy to break pollutants; this technology can effectively clean contaminated water, contributing to a sustainable challenge and enhanced the practicality and efficiency of photodegradation systems. This study compares the photodegradation efficiency of (20 ppm, pH = 6.4) methylene blue dye (MB) under three different types of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation light sources, which are UV type A (365 nm), UV type B (311 nm), UV type C (254 nm) by using new home-made photoreactor. The photodegradation activity of this system comprises various conditions, first on circulation of MB dye in the system without irradiation or adding catalytic, when irradiation MB dye with UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C light sources with circulation, finally, the effect of adding (0.05) gm of green synthesis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) by using watermelon rind extract with irradiation in the system. Different percentage of MB dye removal was reported. The prepared catalytic TiO2NPs were characterized using ultraviolet−visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive analysis (EDX), X-ray spectroscopy (XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). High photodegradation performance was reported under UV-C and UV-B irradiation of MB dye in 90 minutes.