APPLICATION OF TUNGSTEN OXIDE (WO3) CATALYSTS LOADED WITH Ru AND Pt METALS TO REMOVE MTBE FROM CONTAMINATED WATER: A CASE OF LABORATORY-BASED STUDY

The World Health Organization has raised concerns about the accidental fuel leakage during storage and transportation and, therefore extensive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) use has led to cases of natural water contamination [1-9]. This article describes the (i) visible light reaction condition for MTBE, (ii) solid-phase microextraction (SPME) technique incorporated with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to assist the MTBE photo-oxidation process, (iii) catalyst syntheses from different concentration of Ru in tungsten oxide (WO3), nano-WO3, Pt in nano-WO3, and (iv) formation of byproducts during photocatalytic degradation of MTBE by using the GC-MS [10-15]. The experimental results indicated that the MTBE removal can quickly and accurately be achieved in presence of Pt-loaded nanostructured WO3 under visible light radiation, i.e., 96-99% removal between 2.5 hours and 3 hours. The Pt/WO3 nano-composite showed much better photocatalytic MTBE removal than those of the Ru/WO3 and pure nanostructured and micron-sized WO3 [10]. Additionally, the by-products formation during photocatalytic degradation of MTBE obtained from GC-MS revealed that the degradation of MTBE proceeds essentially via formation of formic acid and 1, 1-dimethyl ethyl ester before its complete degradation [10].