Evaluation of Sr-Ce-ZnO/HAp Nanocomposite in Photocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine B Pollutant in the Presence of Visible Light

In this study, the synthesis and characterization of Sr-Ce-ZnO/HAp nanocomposite in the degradation of rhodamine B under visible light was investigated. Structure of Sr-Ce-ZnO/HAp nanocomposite identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy diffraction (EDX) spectroscopy (visible-spectrophotometer) UV-Vis and adsorption/desorption porosimetry were confirmed by BET analysis. Evaluations showed that adopted with metal cations and the presence of hydroxyapatite reduced energy gap, increased surface area, increased adsorption and decreased electron-hole recombination. As a result, it significantly increases the photocatalytic activity of Sr-Ce-ZnO/HAp nanocomposite compared to other prepared nanoparticles. The results also showed that more than 91% of rhodamine B was removed within 90 minutes after the start of the reaction. The first-order reaction constant and the rate constant of 0.023 min-1 were obtained.