Zeolite supported zinc oxide nanoparticles composite: Synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic activity for methylene blue dye degradation
Onur Kabadayı, Esra Altıntığ, Gergő Ballai
Abstract
In the first stage of this study, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) were synthesized. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area diffraction (SAED), and X-ray diffraction analyses (XRD). Subsequently, a composite material was obtained by coating ZnO-NPs with zeolite from Rátka, Hungary. The photocatalytic degradation of ZnO-NPs using Hungarian zeolite in the ZnO-Zeolite composite was investigated. The objective was to evaluate the efficacy of the ZnO-Zeolite composite in degrading methylene blue (MB) under ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV). It was observed that the composite materials were influenced by the light source. The degradation rates showed that the ZnO-Zeolite composite with 100 mg L-1 MB achieved the highest photodegradation rate of 96.70% when exposed to sunlight for 210 min. These findings indicate that the ZnO-Zeolite composite with a 1:5 ratio has the potential to significantly increase the photocatalytic activity, achieving a high yield of 96.70% compared to raw zeolite. In the last stage of the study, equilibrium, kinetic, and thermodynamic studies were carried out. The photocatalytic maximum adsorption capacity of MB for the ZnO-Zeolite composite was calculated as qm=41.32 mg g-1. In the adsorption and kinetic studies of the obtained composite, the best results were obtained with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetics. A desorption study has been conducted, and it has been determined that the composite can be reused for up to 7 cycles.