TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to a support material obtained from waste masks and the production method of the said support material to increase the performance of photocatalysts used in the removal of organic pollution, especially in the textile field.

The invention mainly relates to a support material-photocatalyst system and obtaining the same for increasing the recycling performance of waste water containing organic contaminants in the textile field.

BACKGROUND

One of the most important environmental problems all over the world is water pollution and water scarcity. Therefore, the treatment of waste water from production facilities such as the textile industry, which consumes a high amount of water using azo dyes, is of critical importance. Failure to properly treat waste water has a toxic and carcinogenic effect on humans and living organisms.

Industrial-derived dyestuff-containing waste water is difficult to treat and requires advanced treatment techniques. Today, the removal of dyes is carried out by physical and chemical methods. However, the cost of these methods is fairly high and the disposal of the resulting large amount of concentrated sludge causes problems. Large amounts of water, dyestuffs, and auxiliary chemicals are used in textile industry dyes, and as a result, multicolor waste water containing high concentrations of dissolved substances is usually sent to the central waste water treatment plant.

Textile industry waste water is an important pollutant source, as it contains high concentrations of inorganic-organic chemicals and color dyestuff residues. Existing pollutants, salts, dyes, enzymes, surfactants, washing chemicals, oil and grease, oxidation, and reduction agents in the produced waste water are spread over a wide range. These pollutants are reflected in environmental terms as suspended solids, COD, BOD, high pH, and strong color. Biological treatment, chemical precipitation, membrane technology, activated carbon adsorption, and evaporation are the main treatment techniques used in the textile industry.

Polluting the complex and complex chemical structures of the dyestuffs makes the treatment of the water very difficult. Therefore, researches and studies on classical treatment methods are insufficient. Recently, the photocatalytic method, which is a treatment technique open to development, has begun to attract the attention of researchers on paint removal.

The photocatalytic process is a useful technology for the environmental removal of complex paints and organic pollutants due to its unique catalytic activity, low energy use, and low cost. The photocatalytic process is that after the photocatalyst is stimulated by a photon with sufficient energy, the valence band electrons pass to the transmission band to form active electron-space pairs.

Titanium dioxide (TiOs) is an excellent photocatalyst due to its chemical stability, non-toxicity, good optical properties, and appropriate bandwidth. TiOs consists of three phases: anatase (tetragonal), rutile (tetragonal), and brookite (orthorhombic). The anatase phase performs better than the others. However, TiOs has some disadvantages such as short reunification time and low visible light absorption.

It is one of the methods developed to interact photocatalysts with at least one carbon support material (graphene, fullerene, nanotubes, etc.) to increase their photocatalytic activity. These carbon support materials can change their position on the electron sp ² structural load carrier types produced by stimulating the structures connected to sp ² on the carbon surface (delocalization) and the reunification time can be delayed. However, synthesis methods of carbon materials such as fullerene and graphene require high temperatures and pressure, toxic organic agents, and high costs. Therefore, the synthesis of carbon support material from waste biomass is of great importance.

The pandemic, which negatively affects the whole world socially and economically, has brought some compulsory measures. One of the most important measures taken to minimize the risk of virus transmission and control its spread has been the obligation of individuals to wear masks. However, this measure led to the accumulation of many waste masks. Given that the pandemic process is still ongoing, it can be predicted that the accumulation and contamination of waste masks will be a major environmental problem in the future. At this point, it is very important to develop a solution to this critical problem. As a result, it is anticipated that the application of photocatalytic methods for the recycling of textile waste water and the arrangements made to increase the performance of the photocatalysts used in these methods will provide the innovation criterion in the related technical field.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to support material for enhancing the photocatalytic properties of carbon-based waste masks, and photocatalysts.

An object of the present invention is to re-engage waste masks in sustainable production.

In one aspect, the present invention is to provide a support material for improving the performance of photocatalysts used in the recycling of waste water, especially in the field of textiles.

In one aspect, the present invention is to provide a photocatalyst that enables the recycling of waste textile waters with high performance.

In one aspect, the present invention is to provide a method for the production of carbon-based waste materials as photocatalyst support material.

In one aspect, the present invention is to provide a method for the production of a photocatalyst-support material that enables the recycling of waste textile waters with high performance.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this detailed description, the subject of the invention relates to a support material obtained from waste masks and the production method of the said support material-photocatalyst system to increase the performance of photocatalysts used especially in the elimination of organic pollution in the textile field and is explained with examples that do not have any limiting effect only for a better understanding of the subject. In the invention, the term mask refers to a material designed to limit the transmission of infection agents from personnel to patients and from patients to personnel during surgical procedures in operating rooms and medical environments. The said waste mask refers to end- of-life masks.

The invention is essentially to provide a method of producing support material for increasing the photocatalytic effects of photocatalysts. The production of the support material for the photocatalyst materials of the invention is carried out by the hydrothermal carbonization method. The production of support materials by the said hydrothermal carbonization method includes the following process steps: i. Keeping the waste masks in a sonic bath in a solution containing at least one alcohol, ii. Subjecting the waste masks to drying processes after the application of the process step i) and then cutting them into small pieces, iii. Dissolving the parts obtained in step ii) in water and subjecting them to a hydrothermal carbonization process, iv. Adding activation agent to the material obtained in the process step iii), v. Obtaining the support material as a result of the activation of the mixture obtained in the process step iv).

In process step i), the said solution comprises at least one of the alcohols having a C1-10-OH structure. The solution preferably contains at least one of the ethanol, methanol, propanol, or butanol alcohols. Most preferably, the solution contains ethanol.

The solution used in process step i) contains ethanol, as well as water.

The solution used in process step i) contains ethanol and water, as well as the acetone component.

In process step i), the solution is obtained by mixing ethanol, water, and acetone in equal volumes.

In the process step i), the waste masks:solution is in the range of 1 :0.5 to 1 :10 by weight.

Preferably, this ratio is 1 :1 by weight of waste masks:solution. In process step i), the retention process in the sonic bath is preferably carried out for 2 to 5 hours. Preferably, the retention process in the sonic bath is carried out for 3 hours.

In process step ii), the temperature of the drying process is in the range of 90 to 120°C. Preferably, the drying process is carried out at a temperature of 100°C.

In process step ii), the drying process is preferably carried out for 6 to 36 hours. The said drying process is preferably carried out for 24 hours.

In process step iii), the parts are dissolved in water at a value in the range of 0.1 :10 (w/w) to 2:10 (w/w) by weight. Preferably, the partwater ratio is 1 :10 (w/w) by weight.

In process step iii), the hydrothermal carbonization process is carried out at a temperature value in the range of 150 to 300°C. The hydrothermal carbonization process is carried out at a temperature in the range of 200 to 275°C. The hydrothermal carbonization process is carried out at a temperature of 250°C.

In process step iii), the hydrothermal carbonization process is carried out for 1 to 10 hours. Preferably, the hydrothermal carbonization process is carried out for 2 to 5 hours. Preferably, the hydrothermal carbonization process is carried out for 3 hours.

In process step iv), at least one compound selected from ZnCIs, H3PO4, NaOH, and KOH is used as the said activation agent. The KOH compound is preferred as the said activation agent. The said activation agent:material ratio is in the range of 1 :1 to 5:1 by weight. Preferably the activation agent:material ratio is 4:1 by weight.

In process step v), the activation processes are preferably carried out at a temperature in the range of 750 to 1200°C. The said activation processes are preferably carried out at a temperature of 900°C.

In process step v), the heating rate of the furnace performing the activation process is preferably 3°C.min ^-1 .

The support material of the invention is preferably subjected to washing processes to be neutralized after the process step v). Purified water and 2 M HCI compound are used in the said washing processes. The invention also provides an agent in which the support material obtained in the invention and the photocatalyst are together.

The said photocatalyst-support material system comprises the following process steps: vi. Mixing the support material obtained after the process step v) and the nano-sized photocatalyst material in the solution until they are homogenized; vii. Subjecting the homogeneous mixture to washing processes with a solution, followed by filtering, and after the drying processes obtaining the support materialphotocatalyst system in the final solid state.

In process step vi), the said mixing process is carried out at a speed in the range of 1000 to 2000 rpm. The said mixing process is preferably 1200 rpm.

In process step vi), the mixing process is preferably carried out for 24 to 60 hours. Preferably, the mixing process is performed for 48 hours.

The solution used in the process step vi) is a mixture of ethanol and water.

In process step vi), the support material-photocatalyst material and the solution are mixed at a value in the range of 1 :1 to 1 :4 by weight. The said support material :photocatalyst material is preferably mixed in the solution at a value of 1 :2 by weight.

The solution used in the washing process in process step vii) is a mixture of ethanol and water.

The said drying process in the process step viii) is preferably carried out at a temperature in the range of 75 to 100°C. Preferably, the drying process is carried out at a temperature of 90°C.

In process step viii), the drying process is preferably carried out for 10 to 36 hours. Preferably, the drying process is carried out for 24 hours. The photocatalytic performance of all materials under visible UV illumination was examined by comparing them with methylene blue (10 ppm) velocity constants. The initial volume for methylene blue is set to 200 mL. The mixture was mixed with a magnetic stirrer during the photodegradation measurements. In addition, a total of 200 mg photocatalysts were used in each experiment. Photodegradation experiments were performed on LuzChem-ICH2- photoreactors with a capacity of 16 lamps. In addition, visible and UV (30Wnr ² xenon lamp) lamps were used in the experiments.

Methylene blue photodegradation values are measured to determine the photocatalytic activity of the support material-photocatalyst system of the invention. Accordingly, synthesized TiOs and commercially obtained TiOs photocatalysts are used as reference photocatalysts. In the support material-photocatalyst system of the invention, carbon-based support material obtained by applying the production method process steps i-v detailed in the invention as the support material and synthesized TiOs as the photocatalyst are used. Figure 1 shows the photodegradation results of all photocatalysts under UV-A illumination. As shown in Figure 1 , the waste mask support material shows the superior photoactivity of the TiOs photocatalyst system. As a result of the experiment, when the calculations of the photodegradation kinetics were made, it was proved that the mask carbon-TiOs material (k= 2.1 x 10 ^-2 ) performed better than the commercial TiOs material (k= 5.5 x 10 ^-4 ). The mask was completely degraded after 30 minutes in the presence of carbon-TiOs, while methylene blue was degraded after 90 minutes in the presence of commercial TiOs. With the effect of the new type of support material, the residual mask support material-TiOs system exhibited the highest photodegradation rate compared to other photocatalysts. This is because the mask-carbon support material i) increases the electron transfer rate, ii) decreases the recombination rate of the hole-electron pairs, and iii) has a larger surface area. All these results and the advantages they bring emphasize the effectiveness of the support material. The photocatalytic performance of all materials under visible UV illumination was examined by comparing them with methylene blue (10 ppm) velocity constants. The initial volume for methylene blue is set to 200 mL. The mixture was mixed with a magnetic stirrer during the photodegradation measurements. In addition, a total of 200 mg photocatalysts were used in each experiment. Photodegradation experiments were performed on LuzChem-ICH2-photoreactors with a capacity of 16 lamps. In addition, visible and UV (30Wrrr ² xenon lamp) lamps were used in the experiments.

The invention relates to a support material-photocatalyst system for the cleaning of waste water obtained in the textile field by removing organic or inorganic contaminants. The said support material is carbon-based and is obtained from waste masks with the production methods given in the invention. This support material increases its photocatalytic properties by providing the following steps for the photocatalysts known in the art:

- Shifting the wavelength of the light required for excitation to the visible region by creating a hybrid step in the bandwidth and reducing the bandwidth energy, Distributing the electrons formed by the stimulation of the semiconductor on the conjugation system, the ability of the electron-space pairs to extend the joining time Ensuring that the porous carbon structure increases the adsorption of model organic pollution (dye-methylene blue) on the surface.

In this context, especially studies for the synthesis of new types of support materials with different conjugation in their structure from those known so far constitute the solution steps of the invention, which is proposed to develop an inexpensive photocatalyst that has an activity in the visible region by reducing the band gap. In this respect, thanks to the invention, it is possible to obtain a support material-photocatalyst system with a high photocatalytic effect for the cleaning of textile waste water.

The support material-photocatalyst system of the invention comprises at least one of ZnO, CdO, CuO, WO3, and/or TiOs compounds as photocatalysts. TiOs is preferably used as the said photocatalyst.

It is ensured that waste masks are included in the sustainable production process and used as raw materials for value-added products thanks to the support material-photocatalyst system of the invention.

Thanks to the support material-photocatalyst system of the invention, it is possible to bring a new approach to the interaction between the support material and TiOs by the in situ synthesis method.

Considering the high costs of the support materials (nanotubes, fullerenes) used in the current art thanks to the support material-photocatalyst system of the invention, the novelty brought by the proposed invention and the synthesis of the new type of support material from waste masks that may cause a major environmental problem in the future is a very serious difference and innovation. Thanks to the support material-photocatalyst system of the invention, biomass, which is a renewable resource that has been studied on energy and the acquisition of valuable chemicals, can be used as the support material base for photocatalysts. The scope of protection of the invention is specified in the attached claims and cannot be limited to those explained for sampling purposes in this detailed description. It is evident that a person skilled in the art may exhibit similar embodiments in light of the above-mentioned facts without drifting apart from the main theme of the invention.