PPS Blog

Scientists from India used visible light activation of persulphate by a ruthenium(II) complex to investigate it’s ability to cause degradation of organic contaminants.

Halan Prakash and colleagues from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India, looked at the ability of persulphate to cause degradation of organic contaminants and also its effect on bacteria in aqueous media. The team used methyl orange, a model azo dye, and Gram positive and negative bacteria. Visible light activation of persulphate was achieved using ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes, which produced sulphate radicals and led to significant degradation of methyl orange as well as complete inactivation of bacteria.

The authors note that to take this appraoch forward and make it more practical for actual application in the environment, strategies for removal of the ruthenium photosensitizer and its degradation products need to be developed.

Read the full article for free until the 3rd January 2013!

Photodegradation of methyl orange and photoinactivation of bacteria by visible light activation of persulphate using a tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) complex, Gokulakrishnan Subramanian, Priyadarshini Parakh and Halan Prakash, Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C2PP25316J