scholarly journals Fabrication and Characterization of Cobalt-Pigmented Anodized Zinc for Photocatalytic Application

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Chebwogen ◽  
Christopher Mkirema Maghanga

Population growth and urbanization have led to water scarcity and pollution, which is a health hazard not only to humans but also to the ecosystem in general. This has necessitated coming up with ways of treating water before consumption. Photocatalysis has proved to be one of the most promising cheap techniques that involve chemical utilization of solar energy. TiO2 widely used in photocatalysis absorbs a narrow range of the solar spectrum compared to ZnO. In this regard, this study aimed at preparing and optimizing cobalt-pigmented ZnO, which is applicable in photocatalytic water treatment. The objectives in this study were to fabricate zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films by anodization, pigment the fabricated films with varying cobalt concentrations, characterize the fabricated films optically, and investigate the cobalt-pigmented ZnO’s performance in the methylene blue degradation under UV light irradiation. Mirror-polished zinc plates were sonicated in ethanol and rinsed. Anodization was done at room temperature in 0.5 M oxalic acid at a constant voltage of 10 V for 60 min, and cobalt electrodeposited in the films. Post-deposition treatment was done at 250°C. Optical properties of the films were studied using a UV-VIS- NIR spectrophotometer in the solar range of 300–2500 nm. The photocatalytic activity of the fabricated films was studied in methylene blue solution degradation in the presence of UV light irradiation for 5 h. Cobalt pigmenting was observed to reduce reflectance and optical band gap from 3.34 to 3.10 eV indicating good photocatalytic properties. In this study, ZnO film pigmented with cobalt for 20 s was found to be the most photocatalytic with a rate constant of 0.0317 h−1 and hence had the optimum cobalt concentration for photocatalytic water treatment. This can be applied in small-scale water purification.

2013 ◽  
Vol 668 ◽  
pp. 13-16
Author(s):  
Qing Shan Li ◽  
Biao Zhan ◽  
Wei Hong ◽  
Guang Zhong Xing

Opal as a carrier, tetrabutyl titanate as a titanium source, TiO2 loaded on opal was prepared by sol-gel technique. The photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, TEM and UV-VIS absorption spectrum. Their photocatalytic activities were examined by the photocatalytic decolorization of methylene blue solution under UV light irradiation. The effects of calcination temperature, the amount of TiO2 loading and pH on photocatalytic activities were discussed. The results show that TiO2 supported on opal induced enhancement of photocatalytic decolorization rant and TiO2 doping is about 30 wt. % with 92.15% of decolorization rate at 700°C.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zatil Amali Che Ramli ◽  
Nilofar Asim ◽  
Wan N. R. W. Isahak ◽  
Zeynab Emdadi ◽  
Norasikin Ahmad-Ludin ◽  
...  

This study involves the investigation of altering the photocatalytic activity of TiO2using composite materials. Three different forms of modified TiO2, namely, TiO2/activated carbon (AC), TiO2/carbon (C), and TiO2/PANi, were compared. The TiO2/carbon composite was obtained by pyrolysis of TiO2/PANi prepared by in situ polymerization method, while the TiO2/activated carbon (TiO2/AC) was obtained after treating TiO2/carbon with 1.0 M KOH solution, followed by calcination at a temperature of 450°C. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TG-DTA), Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET), and UV-Vis spectroscopy were used to characterize and evaluate the prepared samples. The specific surface area was determined to be in the following order: TiO2/AC > TiO2/C > TiO2/PANi > TiO2(179 > 134 > 54 > 9 m2 g−1). The evaluation of photocatalytic performance for the degradation of methylene blue under UV light irradiation was also of the same order, with 98 > 84.7 > 69% conversion rate, which is likely to be attributed to the porosity and synergistic effect in the prepared samples.


2020 ◽  
Vol 979 ◽  
pp. 175-179
Author(s):  
M. Nagalakshmi ◽  
N. Anusuya ◽  
S. Karuppuchamy

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles have been successfully prepared by biological method and the resulting material was characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDAX and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The synthesized TiO2 materials successfully degraded the methylene blue dye (MB) under UV light irradiation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 512-515 ◽  
pp. 1677-1681
Author(s):  
Feng Zhou ◽  
Ying Qing Fu ◽  
Xin Wan

A facile route was demonstrated to obtain an efficient graphene-hybridized TiO2 photocatalyst. The photodegradation results of Methylene Blue over graphene hybridized with TiO2 showed that the photocatalytic activity could be significantly enhanced under UV light irradiation. The structure between TiO2 and graphene as well as its effect on the photocatalytic activity were systematically investigated. The mechanism of the enhanced photocatalytic activity is based to the high migration efficiency and the inhibition of recombination of photoinduced electron-hole pairs. The graphene hydridization is proven to be a promising approach to develop highly efficient and stable photocatalysts under UV light irradiation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1123 ◽  
pp. 316-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vici Tritella Carmida ◽  
Mia Putri Rahmawati ◽  
Nadia Febiana Djaja ◽  
Rosari Saleh

In this study, the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue and congo red has been investigated using montmorillonite modified Cr-doped ZnO nanoparticles. Chromium doped zinc oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipitation method and were characterized using X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared absorption and UV-visible spectrophotometer. Furthermore these nanoparticles were explored to degradation of methylene blue and congo red in aqueous solution as model of organic pollutant under UV light irradiation. Comparison of degradation efficiency demonstrated that Cr-doped ZnO nanoparticles modified montmorillonite exhibited higher activity than pure Cr-doped ZnO.


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