Synthesis and characterization of Ag-ZnO@Clinoptilolite for photocatalytic degradation of Tetracycline

In this research, degradation of Tetracycline by Ag doped ZnO based on Clinoptilolite (Ag-ZnO@CP) as photocatalyst was investigated under visible light. To synthesize of photocatalyst, the wetness impregnation method was used. The synthesized photocatalyst was characterized using XRD, FT-IR, SEM, BET and DRS analysis. The XRD analysis proved the synthesized crystalline phase about 42 nm. Based on SEM images, the morphology of the synthesized particles was spherical with a mean particle size of 55 nm. The FT-IR characteristic peak proved the formation of Ag-ZnO@CP. The photocatalyst bandgap was calculated by the Kubelka-Munk algorithm about 2.95 eV. The bandgap indicated that the photocatalyst was active in the visible light range. The results of degradation were shown that the nanoparticles of Ag-ZnO@CP had a higher efficiency compared with the non-silver state. The efficiency of the synthesized photocatalyst was evaluated with an initial pH of the solution, initial concentration of the pollutant and the amount of photocatalyst. For 60 min irradiation under visible light, the optimal values of the solution pH, the initial concentration of the pollutant and the photocatalyst were 8, 8 ppm and 1 g/L, respectively with 77.2 % degradation of Tetracycline. Also, the photocatalytic degradation of Tetracycline by the synthesized sample follows the first-order kinetic equation.