Abstract
The photocatalytic degradation of salicylic acid takes place in several stages involving coupled phenomena, such as the transport of molecules and the chemical reaction. The systems of transport equations and the photocatalytic reaction are numerically solved using COMSOL Mutiphysics (CM) simulation software. CM will make it possible to couple the phenomena of flow, the transport of pollutants (salicylic acid) by convection and diffusion, and the chemical reaction to the catalytic area (bauxite or TiO2 doped by nanoparticles). The simulation of the conversion rate allows to correctly fit the experimental results. The temporal simulation shows that the reaction reaches equilibrium after a transitional stage lasting over one minute. The outcomes of the study highlight the importance of diffusion in the boundary layer and the usefulness of injecting micro-agitation into the microchannel flow. Under such conditions, salicylic acid degrades completely.