Investigation the Synergistic Effect of Adsorption and Photocatalysis for Removal of Dye Pollutants by Hydrogel Supported In۲S۳ Nanoparticles

Homogenous catalysis which the catalyst operates in the same phase as the reactants is definitely efficient in catalysis processes while it suffers from the impossibility or inconvenience of the removal of the catalyst from the reaction media. In this research, In۲S۳ nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple precipitation method and then immobilized and stabilized in the porous structure as a substrate. The properties of pure hydrogel and In۲S۳ in hydrogel were characterized by FTIR, DRS, XRD, BET, BJH, FESEM, and EDX. The DRS results confirmed that the stabilization of nanoparticles in hydrogel led to redshift of bandgap. The hydrogel with In۲S۳ showed a more porous structure in comparison with pure hydrogel. Because of the decrease of bandgap and increase of specific surface area, In۲S۳ nanoparticles stabilized in hydrogel removed Rhodamine B (RhB) as a model pollutant very well. The performance of catalyst in the removal of RhB under dark condition (adsorption) and visible light irradiation (photocatalysis) was investigated and ۷۷.۷% and ۹۵.۲% of dye removal percentage were obtained in ۱۲۰ min under dark and light irradiation, respectively. In conclusion, immobilization In۲S۳ as a high-efficiency visible light photocatalyst in hydrogel provided promising heterogeneous and reusable catalyst for water treatment

Keywords:

adsorbent , Heterogeneous photocatalyst , Hydrogel , Resorcinol Formaldehyde , Water treatment