Os curtumes são indústrias que causam importante impacto ambiental, pois utilizam grande volume de água na produção do couro e o volume total de efluentes gerados normalmente é similar ao total de água captada. Além disso, há a utilização de vários compostos químicos no beneficiamento do couro, gerando, consequentemente, efluentes que possuem alta carga poluidora, com elevada DQO, matéria orgânica, sólidos em suspensão, sais dissolvidos e metais. Portanto, é indispensável o tratamento eficiente deste tipo de efluente, visando minimizar seus impactos ambientais e atender à legislação vigente. A clarificação química coagulação/floculação/decantação) é uma das etapas mais utilizadas no tratamento de efluente de curtume, ainda é utilizado coagulantes à base de sais de alumínio e ferro, porém estes são, comprovadamente, tóxicos ao ambiente. Com intuito de substituir os coagulantes inorgânicos, muitas pesquisas com polímeros naturais vêm sendo desenvolvidas. O PGα21Ca foi desenvolvido com esse propósito, sendo composto principalmente por sulfato de cálcio e ácido--poliglutâmico, possui alta biodegradabilidade e baixa toxicidade. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo o estudo do tratamento de efluente de curtume, por meio do processo de clarificação química com o coagulante PGα21Ca e degradação fotocatalítica utilizando o catalisador TiO2. As condições ideais de tratamento foram determinadas aplicando a metodologia de planejamento fatorial e pelo delineamento composto central rotacional (DCCR). Em condições otimizadas, a clarificação química apresentou remoção de 75% da cor real, 61% da DQO, 77% da turbidez, 94 % do cromo total, 95% de cromo trivalente e 92% do cromo hexavalente. Constatando assim, que o PGα21Ca foi eficiente, principalmente na remoção de cromo. O processo de tratamento completo com clarificação química e fotocatálise heterogênea resultou em remoção de 87% da cor real, 92% da DQO, 91% da turbidez, 97 % do cromo total, 98% de cromo trivalente e 94% do cromo hexavalente. O processo de fotocatálise heterogênea contribuiu principalmente com as remoções de turbidez. Por meio desta pesquisa, comprovou-se a viabilidade da utilização do coagulante PGα21Ca para tratamento de efluente de curtume, considerando-o uma boa opção de coagulante devido ao alto rendimento e capacidade para remoção de compostos orgânicos e inorgânicos. / Tanneries are industries that cause significant environmental impact, because they use a large volume of water in leather production and the total wastewater volume generated is normally similar to the total water caught. In addition, there is the use of several chemical compounds in leather processing, generating highly polluted wastewater with high COD, organic matter, suspended solids, dissolved salts and metals. Therefore, the efficient treatment of this type of wastewater is indispensable, in order to minimize its environmental impacts and to comply with the current legislation. Chemical clarification (coagulation / flocculation / decantation) is one of the most used steps in the treatment of tannery wastewater, it is still used coagulants based on aluminum and iron salts, but they have been proven to be toxic to the environment. In order to replace the inorganic coagullants, many researches with natural polymers have being developed. PGα21Ca was developed for this purpose. It is mainly composed of calcium sulphate and γ-polyglutamic acid, presenting high biodegradability and low toxicity. The present work had the objective of studying the treatment of tannery wastewater by chemical clarification with coagullant PGα21Ca and photocatalytic degradation using the TiO2. The ideal treatment conditions were determined using experimental design methodology and central rotational compound design (CCD). Under optimized conditions, chemical clarification presented removal of 75% of color, 61% of COD, 77% of turbidity, 94% of total chromium, 95% of trivalent chromium and 92% of hexavalent chromium. Thus, PGα21Ca was mainly efficient for chromium removal. Complete treatment process with chemical clarification and heterogeneous photocatalysis resulted in removal of 87% of color, 92% of COD, 91% of turbidity, 97% of total chromium, 98% of trivalent chromium and 94% of hexavalent chromium. Heterogeneous photocatalysis process contributed mainly to turbidity removal. This research proved the feasibility of usage of PGα21Ca for the treatment of tannery wastewater, considering it a good coagulant option due to the high yield and capacity for removal of organic and inorganic compounds.

Au-based catalysts present excellent low temperature activity and selectivity for partial oxidation reactions, but the fundamental issue of atomic oxygen availability, the key parameter to obtain such reactivity, remains present. To enable the O2 dissociation reaction, Au nanoparticles must be smaller than 5 nm, which induces structural issues for upscaled applications. Alloying Au creates synergistic catalytic effects, and this option is investigated here: using residual amounts of Ag enables the O2 dissociation, regardless of the size of the Au-Ag catalyst. Questions remain about the precise interplays between the surface structure, the composition and the observed reactivity and selectivity. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the phenomena occurring during oxidation catalysis on Au-Ag surfaces, at a molecular scale, using surface science techniques.Nanoporous (np) Au structures with residual amounts of Ag (1-5 at.%) are increasingly used as catalyst for oxidation reactions. They are made of an interconnected array of three-dimensional ligaments (20-70 nm in diameter) presenting highly crystalline structures and exposing different crystallographic facets with different properties. These structural features allow for a bottom-up surface science investigation using Au-Ag samples with increasing structural complexity. The used experimental approach provides representative data on single crystals (using photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) and quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS)), on model nanoparticles (using field ion microscopy (FIM) and field electron microscopy (FEM)) and on np-Au samples (using temporary analysis of products (TAP) and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS)) and allows to corroborate results from the different techniques. During experiments with the respective techniques, these samples are exposed to O2, NO2, H2, CO, CH4, CH3OH as well as their analogous reactive gas mixtures to study the corresponding oxidation reactions.PEEM experiments allowed to determine the crucial importance of low coordinated surface atoms to achieve reactivity towards O2 dissociation. This assessment became even clearer when no reactivity towards oxidation of any of the probed reactions was determined on fully Ag covered Au(111) surfaces. Model nanoparticles used in FIM and FEM expose a multitude of crystallographic facets, allowing to simultaneously study facets with varying catalytic properties and understand the influence of connective properties such as surface diffusion of adsorbates or the effects of surface reconstructions on neighbouring facets. On pure Au, the catalytic performances in oxidation reactions are highlighted but an external source of O(ads) was shown to be necessary. Pure Ag samples present a high susceptibility of oxidation which allows for reactivity towards all of the probed reactants, but ultimately leads to the deactivation of the surface by permanent oxidation. Au-8.8 at.%Ag samples present intermediate properties with an intrinsic ability to provide O(ads) from O2, and reactive regimes over prolongated periods of time are possible. Differences in activity are discussed with respect to various parameters such as the underlying crystallographic structures, the chemical composition and repartition of the adsorbates, the temperature, the reconstructions and compositional changes of the surface. Finally, experiments in TAP on np-Au-1.5 at.%.Ag confirmed the selectivity changes in the case of oxidising pre-treatments during methanol oxidation. These changes are corroborated in DRIFTS under ambient pressure conditions during CO oxidation.This work contributes to the clarification of elementary steps during the oxidation processes on Au-Ag surfaces. The possibility to extrapolate results from single crystal surfaces under reduced pressure conditions up to nanoporous structures under ambient pressure is shown. This allows the partial bridging of the materials and pressure gaps between studies undertaken by the surface science and the applied catalysis approaches. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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