Photocatalytic behavior of CeO2-ZnO materials synthesized by Pluronic-assisted process for degradation of Reactive Black 5 dye

Photocatalytic behavior of CeO2-ZnO materials synthesized by Pluronic-assisted process for degradation of Reactive Black 5 dye

Poster

Katerina Zaharieva1, Irina Stambolova2, Maria Shipochka2, Silvia Dimova3, Sasho Vassilev4
1Institute of Catalysis, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
2Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
3Institute of Polymers, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
4Institute of Electrochemistry and Energy Systems, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

The photocatalytic ability of CeO2-ZnO materials was tested for degradation of Reactive Black 5 dye as model contaminant in aqueous solution (5 ppm) under UV light. The samples were prepared using Pluronic-assisted co-precipitation technique using different amounts of Pluronic P123 and followed by thermal treatment at 500oC for 5 hours in air atmosphere. The phase composition and structure of the prepared catalysts were investigated using various methods such as powder X-ray diffraction analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The samples also were studied with a diffuse-reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The obtained results determined that the tested photocatalyst CeO2-ZnO prepared using a smaller amount of Pluronic P123 (2.5g) shows the higher degree of degradation of Reactive Black 5 dye (93%) at 150 minutes UV irradiation compared to that over the other CeO2-ZnO oxides sample (61%) using Pluronic P123 (5g) in the present study.
Key words: photocatalyst, CeO2-ZnO, Reactive Black 5 dye