Enhanced photodegradation of pentachlorophenol in a soil washing system under solar irradiation with TiO2 nanorods combined with municipal sewage sludge

• Catalyst of TiO2 nanorods combined with municipal sewage sludge was prepared.
• Catalyst preparing method solves municipal sewage sludge disposing problem.
• New catalyst enhanced the degradation ability of HCAPs in surfactant solution.
• A novel HCAPs contaminated soil remediation method was established.

A novel remediation method for soil contaminated with hydrophobic chlorinated aromatic pollutants (HCAPs) was developed using TiO2 nanorods combined with municipal sewage sludge in surfactant solution. The target contaminant washed into surfactant solution from polluted soil can be rapidly removed under natural sunlight irradiation. The photocatalyst synthesized by TiO2 combined with municipal sewage sludge by a hydrothermal process shows excellent ability in this situation. The TiO2 nanorods appear on the surface of municipal sewage sludge, which offers a new way of solving waste municipal sewage sludge disposal problem and of producing high-activity photocatalyst. The nanocomposite was characterized by SEM, X-ray diffraction, and UV–Vis DRS. Results showed that the new nanocomposite was better than the original TiO2 catalyst. Using the proposed method in this study, the target contaminant can be removed by up to 97% after 30 min of irradiation in natural sunlight, whereas the surfactant loss was only 27%.

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