Design and fabrication of Zeolite Socony Mobil-5 incorporated ZnO composite for enhanced visible light photocatalytic performance

Abstract

In this study, a hydrothermal method was used to synthesize a ZSM-5/ZnO nanocomposite which was used to photocatalytic activity degrade methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) dye in an aqueous solution. The structure, morphology, composition and optical and textural properties of the composites were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and UV– vis diffuse absorption spectroscopy (UV–vis DAS), photoluminescence (PL) and N2 adsorption/desorption, respectively. TEM images showed the ZnO nanorods were uniformly embroidered on the surface of ZSM-5 sphere surfaces, and the embroidered ZnO nanorods had an average size of 80 ± 20 nm. The presence of ZnO in ZSM-5 leading resulted in a increase in the surface area (125.6 m2/g) and pore size (21.3 nm) as confirming by nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm experiments. The ZnO/ZSM-5 composite was further used as a photocatalyst material in the dye (methylene blue: MB and Rhodamine B: RhB) degradation process, and the performance was compared with that of pure prepared ZnO. Moreover, the degradation efficiency of the ZSM-5/ZnO composite for MO degradation was found to be ∼92 after 180 min, which is higher than that of the pure ZSM-5. While, the degradation efficiency of ZSM-5/ZnO composite was found to be 98.5 % towards RhB dye under identical experimental conditions. The ZSM-5/ZnO composite was also extensively reused for five photo degradation cycles without experiencing any significant changes in its activity or crystalline characteristics.The improved mechanism was also discussed in detail.