Porous silicon as a photocatalyst in degradation of methylene blue

Authors

Vladimir Sarmiento ⋅ PH Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of the Philippines Diliman
Arven Cafe ⋅ PH National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman
Catherine Tugado ⋅ PH Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of the Philippines Diliman
Joybelle Lopez ⋅ PH Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of the Philippines Diliman
Efren Suratos, Jr. ⋅ PH Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of the Philippines Diliman
Arnel Salvador ⋅ PH National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman
Elmer Estacio ⋅ PH National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman
Armando Somintac ⋅ PH National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman

Abstract

The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) using porous silicon (PSi) as catalysts was tested. PSi samples were synthesized via electrochemical etching of highly doped p-type silicon. Varying current densities of 3mA/cm², 10mA/cm², and 30mA/cm²were applied having calculated porosities of 59%, 67% and 74%, respectively. Porosity increases as the applied anodic current also increases. Using improvised UV photoreactor setup, the degradation efficiency of 1.0×10⁻⁵ M concentration of MB dye was measured for different PSi samples. Synthesized PSi samples with current densities of 3 mA/cm², 10 mA/cm² and 30 mA/cm² have obtained degradation rates of 0.051 min⁻¹, 0.056 min⁻¹, and 0.071 min⁻¹ respectively. Results showed that the PSi sample having the lowest porosity have 49% degradation efficiency after 1 hour of UV irradiation which is highest among the samples. Increasing porosity resulted to decrease in degradation efficiency due to the increased surface area-to-volume ratio.

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Issue

2017: Proceedings of the 35th Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference

Article ID

SPP-2017-PA-36

Section

Poster Session A (Materials Science, Instrumentation, and Photonics)

Published

2017-06-07

How to Cite

[1]

V Sarmiento, A Cafe, C Tugado, J Lopez, E Suratos, A Salvador, E Estacio, and A Somintac, Porous silicon as a photocatalyst in degradation of methylene blue, Proceedings of the Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas 35, SPP-2017-PA-36 (2017). URL: https://proceedings.spp-online.org/article/view/255.