title: Ultrasonically induced ZnO-biosilica nanocomposite for degradation of a textile dye in aqueous phase.
abstract: In the present study, a porous clay-like support with unique characteristics was used for the synthesis and immobilization of ZnO nanostructures to be used as sonocatalyst for the sonocatalytic decolorization of methylene blue (MB) dye in the aqueous phase. As a result, the sonocatalytic activity of ZnO-biosilica nanocomposite (77.8%) was higher than that of pure ZnO nanostructures (53.6%). Increasing the initial pH from 3 to 10 led to increasing the color removal from 41.8% to 88.2%, respectively. Increasing the sonocatalyst dosage from 0.5 to 2.5 g/L resulted in increasing the color removal, while further increase up to 3g/L caused an obvious drop in the color removal. The sonocatalysis of MB dye over ZnO-biosilica nanocomposite was temperature-dependent. The presence of methanol produced the most adverse effect on the sonocatalysis of MB dye. The addition of chloride and carbonate ions had a negligible effect on the sonocatalysis, while the addition of persulfate ion led to increasing the color removal from 77.8% to 99.4% during 90 min. The reusability test exhibited a 15% drop in the color removal (%) within three consecutive experimental runs. A mineralization efficiency of 63.2% was obtained within 4h.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran. Electronic address: darvishi@arakmu.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Darvishi Cheshmeh Soltani
authors.affiliation: Environmental Technology Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran; Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran. Electronic address: sahand369@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Sahand
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jorfi
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
authors.forename: Hojjatallah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ramezani
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
authors.forename: Sudabeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Purfadakari
keywords: Immobilization; Siliceous support; Sonocatalysis; Textile dye; ZnO nanostructure