Growth and development of industries and pollution caused by industrial waste output in environmental pollution have resulted severe and irreparable damages. These pollutants threat public health, especially to water resources. Therefore, the use of methods that lead to a reduction in organic pollutants and reduce their toxicity is very important. So use of the photocatalystic of TiO 2 combine with nanoclays lead to removal of organic pollutant from water resource and will be increase the operation of photocatalyst for break-resistant and toxic substances of water sourses. The aim of this study is to evaluate the removal efficiency of phenol from polluted water using TiO 2 -modified nanoclays. In this study, photocatalytic degradation of phenol has been carried out by TiO 2 with natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) in sol-gel method. Characterization of nanocopmositte were investigated using SEM-EDX, XRD, BET and FTIR analysis.Phenol concentrations were measured usingspectrophotometer(Jasco V 500). The initial concentrations of phenol were (50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 200 mg L -1 ).Although the effect of pH values (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) and catalyst dose (0.03, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 g L -1 ) was investigated. Furthermore, the influence of ultra violet ( UV) intensity (0, 16, 32, 64 W m 2 ) and calcinated temperature (300, 400, 500 O C) were also investigated.The results showed that maximum phenol removal in optimum conditions( adsorbant 0.3 mg L -1 , initial concentration 125 mg L -1 , pH=3) by zeolite, and (adsorbant 0.1 mg L -1 , initial concentration 125 mg L -1 , pH=3, UV intensity 48 W m 2 , calcinated on 400 O C) by zeolite-TiO 2 were 24% and 95% respectively.The experiment data fitted well to pseudo second-order kinetic model and this showed that the adsorption process was very rapid by zeolite and the synthesised nanocomposite. Besides the results of experiment data of isotherms modelsshowed that Langmuir was more compatible than Friundlich model by zeolite and zeolite-TiO 2 nanocomposite. The results of this research showed that zeolite-TiO 2 nanocopmosites have a great potential to remove phenol from polluted water. Keyword: Water pollution, Zeolite, Titanium dioxide, Phenol, Photocatalysts, Industrial wastewater
