Photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange using Cerium doped zinc oxide nanoparticles supported bentonite clay

Methyl orange (MO) is a common anionic azo dye that is a serious harmful pollutant to the environmental aquatic sys tems, so it mus t be treated before it can be discharged. Photocatalys ts are usually semiconducting solid oxides that create an electron-hole pair by absorbing photons. These electron holes can react with molecules on the surface of the particles. Photocatalys ts are used in water purification, self-cleaning glasses, the decomposition of organic molecules, etc. Photocatalys ts are environmental cleaning materials that remove pollution from surfaces and can des troy organic compounds when exposed to sunlight or fluorescence. The photocatalytic process follows the following principles. Bentonite mineral is a natural adsorbent material that has good adsorption capacity. In this work, zinc oxide nanoparticles doped with cerium were prepared by the solgel method (SGM) and deposited on bentonite clay to degrade methyl orange (MO) dye. Important parameters that affected degradation efficiency such as contact time, amount of nanocatalys t, and initial dye concentration were inves tigated and optimized. Results showed that 100% degradation efficiency was obtained at 60 mg of nanocatalys t and 50 mg L-¹ of methyl orange in 120 minutes. The Kinetics of the degradation process was consis tent with pseudo-second-order and the adsorption isotherm of MO dye on nanocatalys t was fitted with the Langmuir isotherm model. The reusability of the synthesized nanocatalys t showed that the nanocatalys t was applied successfully seven times without a significant change in degradation efficiency.