Highly Impressive Sonophotocatalytic Degradation of Acid Red 17 using visible light induced Ag Impregnated ZnO Photocatalyst

Abstract Dyestuffs are very persistent in nature and are present in large number in wastewater of different industries. The wastewater of different industries contains many pollutants which are hazardous for human health and environment. In the present study, sonophotocatalytic degradation of Acid red 17 (AR-17) dye in aqueous solution was investigated using silver impregnated zinc oxide (Ag/ZnO). Silver impregnated zinc oxide (Ag/ZnO) catalyst was prepared by wet impregnation method and characterized by SEM, EDX, XRD and band gap. Removal of dye was carried out at 40 kHz frequency ultrasound waves under visible light (Tungsten lamp) of 100 W. The effect of various operating conditions and reagents like H2O2 concentration, pH of the solution, amount of catalyst and concentration of AR-17 dye were investigated. At the own pH of dye using 7 mmole H2O2 concentration 92.9 % degradation of acid red 17 was observed. The degradation increased with increase in irradiation and sonication time of 30 minutes and with 0.25 g /100 mL Ag/ZnO highest degradation 92.94 % was found. The TOC analysis was also carried out sonophotocatalytically and 80 % removal of total organic compounds was observed. The degradation of AR-17 followed pseudo-second-order kinetics with high value of correlation coefficient. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT