Photodegradation of methyl orange dye by ZnO loaded onto carbon xerogels composites

Abstract

The present paper studies the photocatalytic behavior of pure zinc oxide (ZnO) and ZnO loaded onto carbon xerogel as a substrate. These samples were prepared by a sol‐gel process in presence of either an ionic liquid or an alcohol such as 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium trifluoromethylsulfonate (A) or isopropanol solvent (B) to produce ZnO‐CX‐A and ZnO‐CX‐B photocatalysts, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy and X‐ray diffraction proved that ZnO particles were prepared as nanoflakes‐like with amorphous phase. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that ZnO‐CX‐A has a variety of surface functional groups that accelerated the photocatalytic activity of composite. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared photocatalysts was evaluated using methyl orange (MO) azo dye as a model organic compound under visible light source. As a result of the photodegradation experiments, the MO dye was completely degraded by the prepared ZnO‐CX photocatalyst composites in 120 min rather than that performed using ZnO and CX photocatalysts. However, a 98% of the MO dye solution was degraded within 90 min over ZnO‐CX‐A. The separation and reusability runs of ZnO‐CX‐A photocatalyst showed that the catalyst has high photodegradation efficiencies reaching up to 90% in the fourth run and afterward decreased to 60% in the fifth reuse. © 2016 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effect of nanosized CeO2 or ZnO loading on adsorption and catalytic properties of activated carbon

“…P = O, P–O–P, P = OOH, P–O–C) and C–O groups are located between 1300 and 1000 cm −1 (Bandosz and Ania, 2006; Puziy et al., 2002), consecutively. It is observed that a shoulder peak at 450 cm −1 is obtained in FTIR spectrum of ZnO-AC indicating the presence of few free ZnO (Farag et al, 2016; Pulido et al., 2009). Additionally CeO 2 and ZnO catalysts expanded the absorption bands at 3430 cm −1 (–OH), 1625 cm −1 (COOH), and 1082 cm −1 (C–O), confirming the interaction of ceria and ZnO with these functional groups.…”

“…Zinc oxide (ZnO), as an admirable semiconductor material, also has attracted great attention in numerous applications, such as piezoelectric devices, sensors, transparent electronics, optics, optoelectronics, and actuators (Arya et al., 2012; Dastkhoon et al., 2015; Farag et al, 2016; Mahmouda and Fouad, 2015). Moreover, in photocatalytic degradation of different dyestuff, ZnO exhibited better photocatalytic efficiency than TiO 2 , although the band gap energy of ZnO is the same as that of TiO 2 (∼3.2 eV) (Arya et al., 2012; Mahmouda and Fouad, 2015).…”

Carbon Xerogels for Effluent Treatment

“…The extent of photodegradation of MO azo dye estimated at the pH of 3.0, and the results of degradation efficiency was found to be in the order of ZnO–CX-A > ZnO–CX-B > ZnO > CX. This system was found to follow pseudo-first-order kinetics . Some of the significant health effects of dyes and heavy metal ions present in the effluent can be visualized from Figures a and b, respectively.…”

Study on the Photolysis Route of Nano 2,2ʹ,4,4ʹ,6,6ʹ–Hexanitrostillbene by Vibrational Spectroscopy

“…Photolysis, unlike photocatalytic degradation, refers to the phenomenon that light energy is directly or indirectly transferred to chemical bonds under the action of light. The molecules are then transformed into excited states and split or transformed [1][2][3][4][5][6]. In recent years, the photolysis of organic pollutants has attracted widespread attention since it could help pollution control [5,[7][8][9].…”