The influence of the coprecipitation synthesis methods on photodegradation efficiency of ZnFe based photocatalysts Scientific paper

Abstract

Organic dye pollutants that are progressively used in modern chem­ical industries, emerged as a major source of water contamination. A promising eco-friendly and simple approach to water purification is the heterogeneous photocatalytic process that uses various metal oxide semiconductors in the pre­sence of light, initiating the oxidation-reduction reactions resulting in dye deg­radation. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of coprecipit­ation synthesis methods on photodegradation efficiency. The ZnFe based photocatalysts were synthesized using two different methods: low (LS) super­saturation and high (HS) supersaturation coprecipitation and thermally act­ivated at 100, 300, 500 and 700 °C. Structural and textural characterisation were carried out and their efficiency in methylene blue photodegradation test reaction was studied. LS samples treated at 100 and 300 °C exhibited very low photodegradation efficiency (less than 10 %) when compared to HS samples treated at the same temperatures (75 and 85 %). The efficiency of LS 500 and LS 700 samples improved (67 and 75 %) with the increase in thermal treatment temperature and the photodegradation efficiency difference between LS and HS samples decreased. Such behaviour of LS and HS samples could be exp­lained by structural and textural properties that originated from different syn­thesis methods.