SYNTHESIS,CHARACTERIZATION AND PHOTOCATALYTICACTIVITY OF ZEOLITE SUPPORTED CdS/TiO2/Ag3PO4 NANOCOMPOSITE FOR METHYL ORANGE DYE DEGRADATION

Abstract

In this study, various photocataltic materials viz.,single (TiO2,CdS,Ag3PO4), binary(CdS/TiO2; Ag3PO4/TiO2) and ternary (CdS/TiO2/Ag3PO4) systems have been prepared via precipitation and impregnation methods. A geomedia, zeolite, was used to immobilize the selected ternary composite to fabricate Zeolite supported CdS/TiO2/Ag3PO4.Optical properties, band gap energy, functional groups and crystal structure of the as synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by using PL, UV/Vis, FTIR and XRD respectively. Photocataltic activities of the nano composites under visible light irradiation were evaluated on aqueous solution comprising model pollutant methyl orange dye (MeO), as well as on a real sewage sample collected from Bahirdar Textile industry. Results suggested that the zeolite supported ternary nano-composite photocatalyst exhibited a relatively higher efficiency on the photodegradation of both Methyl Orange (MeO) 90.4% and real sewage sample solutions 75%. Photocatalytic activities results suggested that the zeolite supported ternary nano composite exhibited a relatively higher degradation efficiency compared with single, binary and ternary systems. This was due to the sorption or ion exchange ability of the zeolite material. The effect of operational parameters such as pH, scavenger, initial dye concentration and photocatalyst load in MeO dye degradation were studdied by appling bare and Zeolite supported CdS/TiO2/Ag3PO4 nanocomposite. Stability of the as synthesized supported photocatalyst was tested and only about 17.8% decrement was seen after four successive cycles. Different scaven gers suggest that •O2 •OH and h+ are the species involved in the degradation of MeO