The effect of surfactants on the photocatalytic performance of BiOCl-ZnO nanoparticles in the degradation of an organic pollutant

The effect of surfactants on the performance of BiOCl-ZnO nanoparticles was investigated in the photocatalytic degradation of an organic pollutant. BiOCl-ZnO nanoparticles, modified with cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and polyethyleneglycol-20000 (PEG) as two kinds of surfactants, were used as photocatalysts. The photocatalysts were characterized by SEM, XRD, FTIR and DRS analyses. Characterization of the photocatalysts indicated the positive role of the surfactants in increasing the surface area of the photocatalysts. The experimental results demonstrated that PEG had more impressive effect than CTAB on the photocatalytic performance. The effects of important operational parameters, such as initial pollutant concentration, catalyst dosage and pH, on the degradation efficiency were studied. About 96.3% of the organic pollutant removal from synthetic wastewater was obtained at optimal conditions under visible irradiation. Equilibrium data were well fitted to the Langmuir isotherm equation.