The College of Engineering at the University of Baghdad witnessed the public defense of the master’s thesis by Danyah Mohammed Mohsen in the Department of Chemical Engineering. His thesis, titled “Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of PVC/Ag2O@CuO Photocatalytic Membranes for the Removal of Rhodamine B from Aqueous Solutions” was presented on Wednesday, 2 September 2026, in Professor Mahmoud Omar Hall within the Department of Chemical Engineering, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sama M. Al-Jubouri and Assist. Prof. Dr. Sirhan Al-Batty.
The photocatalysis oxidation process is a promising technology within a series of advanced oxidation processes, which implements light-induced catalysts to generate strong oxidative species to eliminate organic pollutants from wastewater treatment. The Ag2O@CuO photocatalyst was successfully prepared by the co-precipitation method. The developed photocatalyst was characterized using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, Ultraviolet-Visible diffuse reflectance spectra, and photoluminescence spectra.
The Ag2O@CuO efficiency was examined in the photocatalysis degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) as a cationic dye under the illumination of ultraviolet light. The effect of various parameters such as type of light, photocatalyst dose, initial RhB concentration, and pH of the RhB solution was studied. The results revealed that 90% degradation was achieved within 90 min at a pH of 6.8, 50 mg of a photocatalyst dose, and 10 mg/L of RhB dye under UV irradiation. However, 98% degradation of RhB dye was achieved at a pH of 10 under the same other conditions mentioned above.
Polyvinyl chloride ultrafiltration membranes were efficiently fabricated using (0.1-0.5 wt.%) Ag2O@CuO heterojunction photocatalyst to form PVC/Ag2O@CuO photocatalytic membrane stimulated by UV light. The PVC/Ag2O@CuO photocatalytic membrane fabricated using phase inversion processes resulted in a significant improvement in internal morphology, porosity, pure water flux, and separation efficacy of the doped membranes.
The efficacy of the PVC/Ag2O@CuO photocatalytic membranes was evaluated in the elimination of RhB dye. The highest photodegradation of RhB (96.9%) was obtained using the PM2 that contains 0.3 wt.% Ag2O@CuO photocatalyst at an influent pH of 6.5, a feed RhB concentration of 5 mg/L, a RhB solution volume of 2000 mL, at 1 bar, an influent flow rate of 1 L/min under UV light irradiation for 90 min. The PM2 demonstrated robust antifouling characteristics, as evidenced by its favorable flux recovery ratio, minimized reversible, irreversible, and total fouling, while 90% of RhB was removed after five cycles of use.
Kinetic evaluation was conducted using empirical datasets gathered from photocatalytic decolorization of RhB. The degradation of RhB mediated by Ag2O@CuO strictly adhered to pseudo-first order mechanism, exhibiting an apparent rate constant of 0.0429 min-1. Applying the Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism to understand the concentration dependence at RhB concentrations of 5-10 mg/L quantified the intrinsic rate constant as 0.7184 mg/L.min and the equilibrium adsorption constant as 0.0767 L/mg. The kinetic results indicated that the photocatalytic oxidation of RhB dye by the PM2 membrane followed the pseudo-first-order kinetic model, with an apparent rate constant of 0.0289 min-1. Studying the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model resulted in an intrinsic photocatalytic reaction rate constant of 0.7666 mg/L.min, and an equilibrium adsorption constant of 0.045 L/mg. The synthesis cost of the PM0 and PM2 was estimated to be $74.644/m2 and $75/m2
