Synthesis and characterisation of ammonia intercalated zinc hydroxide chloride hydrate: a potential photocatalyst for methyl orange degradation under sunlight

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this work, ammonia intercalated zinc hydroxide chloride hydrate (ZHC-NH3), Zn5(OH)8Cl2.4[(H2O)x(NH3)1-x)] was synthesised using precursor, [ZnCl2.2{HONC(CH3)2}] by sol-gel method in presence of ammonia and characterised by FT-IR, SEM-EDX, and XRD analysis. On sintering at 500°C, ZHC-NH3 transformed to ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) as confirmed by the XRD patterns. ZHC-NH3 has nanoplates-like morphology with a positive surface charge (+28.8 mV) while synthesised ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) have spherical morphologies with negative surface charge (−8.28 mV). Band gap of 2.7 eV was observed in ZHC-NH3 while in ZnO NPs it was obtained as 3.3 eV. A comparison has been done on the photocatalytic activities of ZHC-NH3 and ZnO NPs towards the degradation of methylene blue (cationic dye) and methyl orange (anionic dye) under sunlight and it was found that photo-degradation of anionic dye, methyl orange is superior (96.28%) in presence of ZHC-NH3 photocatalyst as compared to ZnO photocatalyst (55.42%). The adsorption capacities of ZHC-NH3 towards Pb2+, Cd2+, and Cr3+ heavy metal ions were found 47.00 mg. g−1, 20.40 mg. g−1, and 48.85 mg. g−1 whereas ZnO-NPs have adsorptions capacities of 46.97 mg. g−1, 43.07 mg. g−1, 29.21 mg. g−1, for Pb2+, Cd2+, and Cr3+ heavy metal ions, respectively.