Application of Semiconductor Photocatalysis for Effective Elimination of Organic Contaminants from Sewage

The ZnO/SiO2 semiconductor nanophotocatalysis was synthesized via sol-gel method. Also, theplatinum particles were loaded on the ZnO/SiO2 nanoparticles by photoreductive method. Thestructure of catalyst was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM) andfourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The XRD patterns of ZnO particlesdisplayed the nanoparticles have a wurtzite structure (hexagonal phase). The crystallite sizes werecalculated using Scheerer’s equation and were around 32nm. For photocatalytic test, decompositionof Malachite Green oxalate (MG), as an organic pollutant was carried out by synthesized catalyst. Acomparison of degradation between bare catalyst and platinum loaded ZnO/SiO2nanoparticle underUV-Vis light irradiation shows that the Pt-ZnO/SiO2 photocatalyst is more efficient than ZnO/SiO2nanoparticles. Also, the activity of ZnO/SiO2nanoparticles in the visible light are minimal, whileloading of Pt in zinc oxide network displaced the band gap toward longer wavelengths (visiblelight) and increased the photocatalysis activity of ZnO/SiO2 in the range of visible light.