Synthesis of novel zeolite NaA/NaY@ZnFe2O4 nanocomposite for sonocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) organic dye

Sonocatalysis is an effective technique for the remediation of effluents and removal of organic dyes. In this work, the ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles were successfully immobilized on the NaA/NaY zeolite for the sonodegradation of methylene blue (MB) dye. The as-synthesized NaA/NaY@ZnFe2O4 zeolite nanocomposite was characterized by FESEM-EDAX, VSM, FTIR and XRD. The effects of various parameters such as initial dye concentration, irradiation time, catalyst dosage and H2O2 concentration have been assessed to obtain the maximum sonocatalytic efficiency. About 99.5% of MB dye was removed under the optimized conditions i.e. 25 mg/L of initial MB concentration and 0.1 g of NaA/NaY@ZnFe2O4 amount after irradiation time of 16 min. According to the obtained findings, the NaA/NaY@ZnFe2O4 zeolite sonocatalyst has a high activity to degrade the MB in the presence of H2O2 and ultrasonic (US). The .OH radicals were also considered as the main reactive species on the degradation of MB under US irradiation. Moreover, the reproducibility of the NaA/NaY@ZnFe2O4 sonocatalyst was implemented, which proved that it can be recycled up to five runs with almost trivial loss of catalytic performance. In addition to this, the MB sonodegradation over the NaA/NaY@ZnFe2O4 zeolite catalyst in the presence of US/H2O2 system demonstrates a great activity to remove the organic pollutants from effluents.

Synthesis of novel zeolite NaA/NaY@ZnFe2O4 nanocomposite for sonocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) organic dye Keywords:

NaA/NaY@ZnFe2O4 , zeolite , nanocomposite , methylene blue (MB) , sonodegradation