LAUSR

Abstract The contamination of underground water by methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) is a very serious environmental issue as its separation from the water is quite difficult because of high solubility. Limited studies have used ceria composite as a catalyst for the photo-degradation of MTBE in water samples. Therefore, photo-degradation of aqueous MTBE using synthesized pure ceria and copper oxide-ceria composite nanofiber catalyst was conducted in the present study under UV irradiation. The binary catalyst (with 0–20% Cu loading) was prepared via electrospinning method, and characterized using SEM, EDX, FTIR, XPS, BET surface area and XRD techniques. The morphology of such prepared catalyst was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), whereas, the copper loading in the composite was assured by EDX (Electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy). This experiment was performed using aqueous MTBE solution of various initial concentrations (100–400 ppm) for a time period of 2 h, and the optimization of operational parameters was done. The study showed that the maximum efficiency to degrade 100 ppm of MTBE under UV irradiation was achieved at pH 8.0 with a catalyst loading of 1 g/L following first order reaction kinetics. Thus, this composite presents a novel catalyst for effective purification of MTBE contaminated water. Similar studies using other nano-composite materials as catalyst are recommended for identifying effective methods of water purification in a simple and cost effective manner.