Abstract:
In the present work, different types of photocatalysts in single (TiO2) and binary (g-C3N4/TiO2;
Ag3VO4/TiO2) systems have been prepared via precipitation and impregnation methods. A
geomedia, zeolite, was used to immobilize the selected binary composites to fabricate Zeolite
supported Ag3VO4/TiO2. Optical properties, band gap energy, crystal structures and morphology
of the as synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by using PL, UV/Vis, XRD and SEM
image respectively. Photocatalytic activities of the nanocomposites under visible light
irradiation were evaluated on aqueous solution comprising model pollutant methyl blue dye, as
well as on a real sewage sample collected from Hawassa textile industrial park. Results
suggested that the zeolite supported binary nanocomposite photocatalyst exhibited a relatively
higher efficiency on the photodegradation of both Methyl blue (97.3%) and real sewage sample
solutions (62.4%). Photocatalytic activities result suggested that the zeolite supported binary
nanocomposite exhibited a relatively higher degradation efficiency compared with single and
binary systems. This was assumed to be due to the sorption or ion exchange ability of the zeolite
material. The effects of operational parameters such as pH, scavenger, initial dye concentration
and photocatalyst load in MB dye degradation were studied by appling bare and Zeolite
supported Ag3VO4/TiO2 nanocomposites. Stability of the as synthesized supported photocatalyst
was tested and found to be having only about 23.5% decrement after four successive cycles.
Different scavengers suggest that O-2
, •OH and h+ are the species involved in the degradation of
MB.
