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Enhanced photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B, methylene blue and 4-nitrophenol under visible light irradiation using TiO2/MgZnAl layered double hydroxide

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Abstract

Series of new TiO2/MgZnAl layered double hydroxide (TiO2/LDH) composites with different molar ratio of metals (Mg:Zn:Al) and a certain amount of recombined TiO2 were successfully prepared by co-precipitation method. The prepared products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, N2 adsorption–desorption measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Rhodamine B (10 mg/L), methylene blue (10 mg/L) and 4-nitrophenol (4 mg/L) were used as model organic compounds for evaluation of the photocatalytic performance of the as-prepared photocatalysts under visible light irradiation. Results indicated that TiO2/LDH composites (Mg:Zn:Al equals to 1:3:1) showed the highest photocatalytic activity and degraded 93.73, 85.88 and 89.33% of rhodamine B, methylene blue, and 4-nitrophenol in 9.0, 8.0 and 4.0 h, respectively. By comparison, the composites exhibited superior photocatalytic activity compared to P25 catalysts. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of the TiO2/LDH composites mainly attributed to the efficient separation of photoinduced electrons and holes. Superoxide radicals and holes were the major active species. What’s more, the as-prepared photocatalysts exhibited remarkable stability and reusability. Besides, the possible degradation mechanism of rhodamine B, methylene blue and 4-nitrophenol also were proposed in this paper. This work provides an effective way to prepare series of LDH-based photocatalysts.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21476269, 21776319), National College Students’ Free Exploration Project of China (Grant No. 201710533255) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University (Grant No. 2017zzts777) for the financial supports of this work.

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  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, People’s Republic of China

    Guoqing Zhao, Jiao Zou, Caifeng Li, Jingang Yu, Xinyu Jiang, Yijian Zheng, Wenjihao Hu & Feipeng Jiao

  2. Donadeo Innovation Central for Engineering, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 1H9, Canada

    Wenjihao Hu

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  1. Guoqing Zhao
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Zhao, G., Zou, J., Li, C. et al. Enhanced photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B, methylene blue and 4-nitrophenol under visible light irradiation using TiO2/MgZnAl layered double hydroxide. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 29, 7002–7014 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-8687-y

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