Open AccessSynthesis and Application of Fe-Doped TiO2-Halloysite Nanotubes Composite and Their Potential Application in Water Treatment
Author(s) -
Emmanuel Nyankson,
Benjamin AgyeiTuffour,
Jonas Adjasoo,
Ebenezer Annan,
David DodooArhin,
Abu Yaya,
Bismark Mensah,
Johnson Kwame Efavi
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advances in materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1687-8442
pISSN - 1687-8434
DOI - 10.1155/2019/4270310
Subject(s) - materials science , rhodamine b , photocatalysis , adsorption , thermogravimetric analysis , diffuse reflectance infrared fourier transform , freundlich equation , methylene blue , langmuir adsorption model , chemical engineering , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , nuclear chemistry , composite number , composite material , organic chemistry , chemistry , catalysis , engineering
In this work, the potential application of TiO 2 -Fe-HNT photocatalyst-adsorbent composite in water treatment technologies was confirmed. The photocatalyst-adsorbent composite (TiO 2 -Fe-HNTs) was synthesized by the hydrothermal method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The adsorption and photocatalysis mechanism by the TiO 2 -Fe-HNT composite were examined on methylene blue dye, rhodamine blue dye, naproxen sodium (pharmaceutical drug waste), and imidacloprid (pesticide). The TiO 2 -Fe-HNT composite was active in UV and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The adsorption and photocatalytic efficiency increased with increasing amount of HNTs. The photocatalyst-adsorbent composite exhibited excellent removal efficiency for pharmaceutical waste (naproxen sodium) and pesticides (imidacloprid). An adsorption equilibrium data fitted well with the pseudo-second-order kinetics for both methylene blue and rhodamine blue dyes with the intraparticle model describing its rate-controlling steps. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models further described the adsorption of methylene blue and rhodamine blue molecules, respectively.