Photocatalytic Reduction of Nickel using Synthesized nano Titanium Oxide - Acidified neem saw dust Composite from Battery waste

The heavy metals, present in the battery waste water released from industries are extremely toxic and pose a serious threat to public health. The physical adsorption methods are effective, but require an additional adsorbent regeneration step. The degradation of heavy metals in industrial effluents through chemical remediation has also gained tremendous attention due to its enormous applications. Photo catalytic degradation using renewable UV / sun light is one of the most promising techniques due to its simplicity and economy. Till date, various metallic/bimetallic oxides such as TiO2, ZnO, Fe2O3 have been tested for degradation of photo catalytic components due to their superior activity, low price. Attempts have been made to study the photo catalytic degradation of heavy metals using nano Titanium Oxide and Acidified neem saw dust (nTO/ANSD) composite as a photo catalyst. In this present research, nTO/ANSD composite was synthesized and assessed for photo-chemical degradation of nickel in presence of UV light. It was observed that 96.4% Nickel was reduced using photo catalytic process. The X-Ray Diffraction(XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for nTO/ANSD studies were also performed. The recovery process of the nTO/ANSD composite photo catalyst is easier and reusability studies shows that the catalyst can be reused to remove the traces of heavy metals with slight reduction in efficiency.