|
Abstract
|
Perovskite ZnTiO3 nanoparticles with the cubic structure were synthesized using the hydrothermal method at 160 °C for 12 h and annealed at 750 °C for 3 h. ZnTiO3@S NCs (nanocomposites) were prepared through solid-state reaction by ZnTiO3 and sulfur powders with different weight percentages (5–20%) at 550 °C for 2 h under Ar in the tube furnace. The crystal structure confirmation, morphology, purity, and surface chemical properties of the prepared samples were investigated by XRD, FT-IR, Fe-SEM, EDX, and BET analyses. The results revealed an increase in surface area, crystal size, and the presence of hierarchical porous in ZnTiO3@S NCs, which are due to the influence of sulfur in the ZnTiO3 structure. The optical properties and photocatalytic activity were evaluated by DRS and UV–Vis analysis, respectively. The band gap energy value obtained from the Tauc plots indicated that it narrowed with sulfur content elevation. The excellent photocatalytic activity of ZnTiO3@S NCs exhibited more than 93% degradation for the organic azo dyes of Crystal violet (CV) and Rhodamine B (RB) as a pollutant in 180 min under natural sunlight irradiation. The kinetic behaviors revealed that RB degradation follows the pseudo-first-order kinetic, according to R2 (0.9914), while the degradation of the CV follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic.
|