Fatemeh Mahdizadeh - Research Laboratory of Environment Protection Technology, Department of Applied ChemistryFaculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
Soheil Aber - Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Photocatalytic removal of phenazopyridinefrom wateras a modelof pharmaceutical pollutants was investigated under visible light in this research. ZnO was synthesized and immobilized directly by sol-gel method on porous granular scoria rocks. The CuO was added to the ZnO/Scoria structure to make a visiblelightsensitive photocatalyst. Energydispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS)was used to confirm the synthesis of ZnO and CuOon the photocatalyst.Particles size was determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Photocatalytic process was performed in a continuos open channel reactor. Results showed approximately 60% removal of phenazopyridine in the steady state conditions.

Phenazopyridine, CuO, ZnO, Scoria, photocatalyst