The Study of the Photocatalytic Degradation of Orange II Dye with Wastewater Using New Pyrochlore Solid Solutions Bi1.5Sb1.5Zn1–xCuxO7 as Photocatalysts

Abstract

In this present work, photocatalysts based on a new pyrochlore-type solid solution were prepared using the ceramic method at 1000°C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows the existence of a solid solution with pyrochlore structure Bi_1.5Sb_1.5Zn_1–xCu_xO₇ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1). Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images exhibited a slight difference in the external morphology of the samples. The UV-diffuse measurement revealed a change in the absorbance from the UV part for the zinc-rich compound to the visible part for the copper-rich compound. The Energy band gap values were between 3.15 and 1.84 eV. The photocatalytic activity of these prepared mixed oxides was studied for the photo-degradation of the dye Orange II (ORII) as an organic pollutant, in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) as an oxidising agent, under sunlight irradiation, by varying different parameters such as the catalysts mass, the oxidant volume, the concentration of the pollutant and the pH. The experimental results obtained by UV-visible spectroscopy revealed that the removal efficiency of ORII increased with increasing the irradiation time for all tested photocatalysts. The pseudo-first-order kinetic model gave the best fit, with the highest correlation coefficients (R² = 0.99). The results of this study revealed the potential and various advantages of these new efficient photocatalysts.