Abstract
This study is aimed at developing a simple and low-cost method to fabricate ZnO-loaded porous activated carbon (AC-ZnO) prepared from the Algerian olive-waste cakes and utilize it as a photocatalyst for the degradation of Ethyl Violet dye. The synthesized AC-ZnO material was characterized using powder X-ray diffraction, BET surface area measurements, Raman microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and zeta potential measurements. The degradation efficiency was evaluated with Ethyl Violet (EV) dye in aqueous solution under UV irradiation supplied by a Xenon arc lamp through a Pyrex glass filter (cutoff 280 nm), and the degraded products were identified by using electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy. Additional experiments were carried out under N2 flow and with isopropyl alcohol to examine the role of superoxide and hydroxyl radicals, respectively. The amount of ●OH radical formed on irradiated AC-ZnO was tested with terephthalic acid which can act as a chemical trap for the ●OH radicals. The results from this study indicate that the AC-ZnO is a potential catalyst for the pollutant removal and the ●OH radicals are the key species for the degradation of EV. Further, this study opens up an opportunity to produce cheaper activated carbon support from olive wastes for environmental remediation applications.
Highlights
Semiconductor photocatalysis has become very attractive due to its potential contributions in the field of environmental remediation
Broad peaks at around 23° and 43° indicate the presence of the carbon support due to the (002) and (101) planes, respectively. These two peaks resemble with the X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks obtained for the pure activated carbon support as illustrated in Figure S1 in the supplementary section
Degradation of the Ethyl Violet (EV) dye was evaluated with the prepared catalyst activated carbon (AC)-ZnO, and the kinetic study suggests that the rate of the degradation obeys pseudo-first-order kinetics
Summary
Semiconductor photocatalysis has become very attractive due to its potential contributions in the field of environmental remediation. Most of the photocatalytic studies use TiO2 as an effective photocatalyst, ZnO has gained attention due to its favorable photocatalytic properties [1,2,3,4]. Fabricating materials with favorable physicochemical characteristic features are key for the design of effective photocatalysts. In this regard, porous materials, which have favorable textural properties, such as high surface areas and large pore volumes and pore sizes, have been used as support to disperse semiconductor photocatalysts. Commercially available activated carbons are still expensive in many countries, (especially developing ones) due to the need of processing the raw material (charcoal, coal, or carbon) by physical and/or chemical
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