Hybridization of zirconia, zinc and iron supported on HY zeolite as a solar-based catalyst for the rapid decolorization of various dyes

Abstract

Hybridization of an electrogenerated zirconia/zinc/iron-supported on HY zeolite nanocomposite catalyst (EGZrO₂/EGZnO/EGFe₂O₃/HY) was performed by a facile one-pot electrochemical method. In this study, nanoparticles (<35 nm in size) of electrogenerated zirconia oxide (EGZrO₂), electrogenerated zinc oxide (EGZnO), and electrogenerated iron oxide (EGFe₂O₃) were obtained and distributed on the surface of a HY support. The photoactivity of the catalyst was examined for the photodecolorization of methylene blue (MB) under varying pH values, catalyst dosages, and initial concentrations of MB. 0.38 g L⁻¹ of 1 wt% EGZrO₂/1 wt% EGZnO/1 wt% EGFe₂O₃/HY was found to be the optimum dosage for 10 mg L⁻¹ MB, which gave the complete decolorization of MB after 1 h of contact time at pH 9 under sunlight irradiation. This result confirmed the high photoactivity of the catalyst compared to other single or double nanometal oxide-supported HY catalysts studied. Nearly complete mineralization of MB was observed, and the catalyst was still stable after six cycling runs with a negligible leaching effect. Significantly, a high decolorization percentage (>80%) of other dyes, such as malachite green (MG), congo red (CR), disperse violet (DV), and disperse blue (DB), were also obtained using this promising electrogenerated nanocomposite catalyst.