Efficient adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of Congo Red by Zeolitic Imidazolate Framwork-8-encapsulated POM

In this paper a novel hybrid photocatalyst is synthesized through a convenient procedure by encapsulation of Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-8 (ZIF-8) inside a polyoxometalate named as phosphotungstic acid (PTA) to achieve ZIF-8-encapsulated PTA photocatalyst. The successful synthesis of the as-synthesized photocatalyst was also confirmed by FT-IR and XRD methods. Afterward, the produced catalyst was utilized for the degradation of Congo Red dye photocatalytically under visible light. In particular, ZIF-8-encapsulated showed acceptable photocatalytic activity for Congo Red removal where a 80% conversion of process was achieved after 1 hr only with applying 0.1 g/L catalyst at room temperature.