Effectiveness of photocatalysis of MMT-supported TiO2 and TiO2 nanotubes for rhodamine B degradation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to synthesize montmorillonite/TiO₂-nanoparticles (MMT/TiO₂ and montmorillonite/TiO₂-nanotubes (MMT/TiO_2-NTs) photocatalysts through a simple wet agitation method based on TiO₂ nanoparticles and MMT. They are likely to accumulate the effect of adsorption and photodegradation. Then, the photocatalysts are applied to degrade the rhodamine B in dye effluents. The structural characterizations of photocatalysts are investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The photocatalytic activities and effectiveness of photocatalysts are evaluated through rhodamine B degradation at different concentrations under dark and UV-C irradiation conditions. The results show that the synthesized TiO_2-NTs have an average tube diameter of 5 nm and a tube length at least about 110 nm, which are intercalated into MMT sheets in MMT/TiO_2-NTs photocatalyst. Meanwhile, TiO₂ nanoparticles are immobilized on the surface of MMT sheets in the MMT/TiO₂ photocatalyst. The photocatalytic effectiveness of rhodamine B degradation of TiO_2-NTs shows a significantly enhance compared to that of TiO₂ nanoparticles. However, photocatalytic performance of MMT/TiO_2-NTs is lower than that of MMT/TiO₂. The degradation effectiveness of MMT/TiO₂ photocatalyst reaches to 100% for 3 ppm and 90% at 10 ppm of rhodamine B, while these values are 97.5% and 85.5%, respectively, recorded for MMT/TiO_2-NTs.

Keywords: MMT/TiO(2) and MMT/TiO(2-NTs); Photocatalysts; Rhodamine B; TiO(2) nanotubes; UV-C irradiation.