Natural Zeolite-Cellulose Phosphate Nanocomposites: Preparation and Advance Electrochemical Study

Abstract

The scope of this research study is to investigated the green method for preparing and applying cost-effective and environmentally friendly electrocatalytic materials from natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) and cellulose phosphate using microwave irradiation. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDX) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), were used for the physicochemical characterization of nanocomposites. The newly obtained nanocomposites were studied electrochemically using cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep, galvanostatic measurements, and Tafel slopes.The results show that the obtained nanocomposites can find applications as promising electrocatalytic materials for seawater electrolysis for hydrogen production at oxygen evolution reactions (OER) and for electrochemical purification of organic pollutants.

Physicochemical study of natural zeolite modified with lavender essential oil

“…The procedure to obtain zeolite-containing nanocomposites is similar to the procedure described in a recent our publication [8] with some changes. Briefly to the natural zeolite (NZ) was added KH 2 PO 4 and cellulose phosphate (CPh) at a ratio of 1:2:2.5 for nanocomposite ID-37 and 1:4:2.5 for nanocomposite ID-38 by weight and approximately 30 ml of DI water.…”

“…The peaks in the region 19-22.6 2θ corresponding to the cellulose in fact related to NZ that has transformed to (Na, K, Ca) 5 Al 6 Si 30 O 72 .18H 2 O. The presence of CPh in the zeolite structure is evidenced by the appearance of an amorphous halo in the indicated area due to the reduced number of intra-molecular hydrogen bonds as a result of the introduction of phosphate groups in the structure of cellulose [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”