Synthesis and characterization of CdS/UiO-66/Ag3PO4 nanocomposite for photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange under visible light irradiation

Abstract

Single, binary and ternary nanomaterials were synthesized by precipitation, solvothermal, simple solution and impregnation methods to serve as photocatalysts. The crystal structure, morphology, band gap energy, functional groups and optical properties of these materials were characterized by XRD, SEM-EDX, UV-Vis, FTIR, and PL instrumental techniques, respectively. Photocatalaytic degradation performances of all the as-synthesized photocatalysts were investigated under visible light irradiation using MO as a model organic pollutant. The photocatalytic degradation performances of all the photocatalysts were evaluated on aqueous solution of the model pollutant dye as well as on a real sewage sample solution collected from Bahir Dar Textile Share Company. Results suggested that the optimized ternary nanocomposite photocatalyst exhibited a relatively higher efficiency towards the photodegradation of both the methyl orange (MO) dye solution (90%) and the real sewage sample solution (71.2%). The effect of operational parameters such as pH (4), initial dye concentration (10 mg/L) and photocatalyst load (0.2 g/L) in MO dye degradation were investigated by using the ternary CdS/UiO-66/Ag3PO4 (R4) nanocomposite. KEY WORDS: Metal-organic frameworks, Nanocomposite, Ternary system, Photocatalysts, Methyl orange Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2020, 34(3), 571-588. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v34i3.12