Vietnamese Montmorillonite Supported ZnO: Preparation, Characterization, and Photocatalytic Enhancement in Degradation of Rhodamine B

In this paper, montmorillonite/ZnO (MMT/ZnO) nanocomposite materials are prepared through chemical method with zinc nitrate and sodium alginate as precursors and stabilizers, respectively. Synthesized photocatalysts are used to degrade rhodamine B (RhB) in dye wastewater. The characteristics of photocatalysts in composition, surface morphology and structure are studied by using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The intermediates after decomposition are identified by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The results reveal that zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONP) with hexagonal wurtzite structure are successfully attached to montmorillonite layers according to the pillar-montmorillonite structure. The degradation efficiency of 10 ppm RhB in the presence of 0.1g/L MMT/ZnO under UVC irradiation for 210 min reaches 95.5