Article
Synthesis of BiOI/Mordenite composites for photocatalytic treatment of organic pollutants present in agro-industrial wastewater
Registro en:
Gallegos-Alcaíno, A., Robles-Araya, N., Avalos, C., Alfonso-Alvarez, A., Rodríguez, C. A., Valdés, H., . . . Mera, A. C. (2022). Synthesis of BiOI/Mordenite composites for photocatalytic treatment of organic pollutants present in agro-industrial wastewater. Nanomaterials, 12(7) doi:10.3390/nano12071161
2079-4991
Autor
Gallegos Alcaíno, Alejandra
Robles Araya, Nathaly
Avalos, Camila
Alfonso Alvarez, Alexander
Rodríguez, Carlos
Valdés, Héctor
Sánchez Flores, Norma
Durán Alvarez, Juan
Bizarro, Monserrat
Romero Salguero, Francisco
Mera, Adriana
Resumen
Artículo de publicación SCOPUS - WOS Recently, bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) is an attractive semiconductor to use in heterogeneous
photocatalysis processes. Unfortunately, BiOI individually shows limited photocatalytic efficiency,
instability, and a quick recombination of electron/holes. Considering the practical application
of this semiconductor, some studies show that synthetic zeolites provide good support for this
photocatalyst. This support material permits a better photocatalytic efficiency because it prevents
the quick recombination of photogenerated pairs. However, the optimal conditions (time and
temperature) to obtain composites (BiOI/ synthetic zeolite) with high photocatalytic efficiency using
a coprecipitation-solvothermal growth method have not yet been reported. In this study, a response
surface methodology (RSM) based on a central composite design (CCD) was applied to optimize
the synthesis conditions of BiOI/mordenite composites. For this purpose, eleven BiOI/mordenite
composites were synthesized using a combined coprecipitation-solvothermal method under different
time and temperature conditions. The photocatalytic activities of the synthesized composites were
evaluated after 20 min of photocatalytic oxidation of caffeic acid, a typical organic pollutant found
in agro-industrial wastewater. Moreover, BiOI/mordenite composites with the highest and lowest
photocatalytic activity were physically and chemically characterized using nitrogen adsorption
isotherms, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared
spectroscopy (FT-IR), and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The optimal synthesis conditions
prove to be 187 ◦C and 9 h. In addition, the changes applied to the experimental conditions led
to surface property modifications that influenced the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the
BiOI/mordenite composite toward caffeic acid photodegradation.