LAUSR

Abstract The photocatalytic decoloration of Neutral Red (NR) dye in aqueous solutions on various metal oxide (MO) photocatalysts (such CeO 2 , TiO 2 and ZnO) has been investigated under visible light irradiation. The significance of addition of β-Cyclodextrin (β-CD) on the photocatalytic performance of the above catalysts has also been investigated. The interaction between semiconductors and β-CD were characterized in detail by FE-SEM, X-ray diffraction, and UV-vis Diffuse Reflectance spectral analyses. The analytical results indicated that the addition of β-CD shows no change in the lattice structure, crystalline features of semiconductors. The experiments were carried out to study the factors influencing the photocatalytic decoloration, such as the initial concentration of dye solution, catalyst concentration, illumination time and pH. The experimental results show that catalytic system bounded with β-CD exhibits superior photocatalytic activity than that of bare catalyst systems. The decoloration rate was pH dependent.