Carbon-doped g-C 3 N 4 (CGNS) nanocomposite with Ag 2 O and α-Fe 2 O 3 has been synthesized to improve g-C 3 N 4 photocatalytic activity. The prepared CGNS/Ag 2 O/α-Fe 2 O 3 (GAF [with mass ratio 3:2:1]) nanocomposite exhibits the expanded visible-light absorption region leading to the enhanced photocatalytic performance for Acid Red 14 (AR14) degradation. Besides, it is found that the recombination rate of the charge carriers effectively suppresses the nanocomposite. For a better understanding of the photocatalytic degradation mechanism, the reactions have been performed in the presence of different scavengers. The experiments indicate that superoxide anion radicals possess a more influential role in AR14 degradation in comparison with hydroxyl radicals and holes. The degradation efficiency has been decreased from 94.68 to 85.60 after five consecutive photocatalytic tests implying that the prepared nanocomposite is a stable photocatalyst. In the end, the kinetic study of AR14 degradation on nanocomposite with considering pseudo-first-order kinetics results in a nonlinear empirical kinetic model development for prediction of degradation efficiency of AR14 on nanocomposite.
In this study, Tb-doped CdSe nanoparticles with variable Tb3+ content were synthesized by a simple sonochemical technique. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The sono-photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared specimens were assessed for the degradation of Reactive Black 5. The experimental results show that the sono-photocatalytic process (85.25%) produced a higher degradation percentage than the individual sono- (22%) and photocatalytic degradation (8%) processes for an initial dye concentration and Tb-doped CdSe dosage of 20 mg/L and 1 g/L, respectively. Response surface methodology (RSM) was utilized to assess model and optimize the impacts of the operational parameters, namely, the Tb3+ content, initial dye concentration, catalyst dosage, and time. The addition of benzoquinone results in remarkably inhibited degradation and the addition of ammonium oxalate reduced the removal percentage to 24%. Superoxide radicals and photogenerated holes were detected as the main oxidative species.
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