Hydrothermal synthesis of Ag-doped ZnO/sepiolite nanostructured material for enhanced photocatalytic activity

Akkari, Marwa; Bardaoui, Afrah; Djebbi, Mohamed Amine; Amara, Abdesslem Ben Haj; Chtourou, Radhouane

Hydrothermal synthesis of Ag-doped ZnO/sepiolite nanostructured material for enhanced photocatalytic activity

2022

Akkari, Marwa | Bardaoui, Afrah | Djebbi, Mohamed Amine | Amara, Abdesslem Ben Haj | Chtourou, Radhouane

This work is devoted to the development of Ag-ZnO/sepiolite photocatalysts as novel nanostructured materials by the immobilization of Ag-doped ZnO on the surface of fibrous clay. Herein, innovative Ag-ZnO/sepiolite photocatalysts were successfully prepared through a simple hydrothermal route using diverse Ag dopant concentrations (2 and 5%). Structural, morphological, and optical properties of the obtained photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, TEM, MEB, and DRS-UV–Vis spectroscopy. The results confirmed that Ag-doped ZnO nanoparticles with a diameter of 10–30 nm are homogeneously distributed on the sepiolite fibers’ surface. The silver dopant was effectively incorporated into the zinc oxide, leading to a slight distortion of the hexagonal wurtzite structure and a reduction of the bandgap energy with increased silver doping. The photocatalytic activity towards the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye was analyzed for all the samples under UV–Vis light. Compared to ZnO alone and undoped ZnO/SEP, the Ag-ZnO/SEP5% nanostructured materials exhibited a significantly improved photocatalytic activity, with full decolorization after 4 h of UV–Vis irradiation (60 W). The photocatalysis of organic pollutants matched well with a pseudo-first-order kinetic. The enhanced photocatalytic activity was ascribed to the low bandgap energy (3 eV), the reduction of the recombination of electron hole, and the sepiolite support.

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