The removal of Hexavalent chromium; (Cr (VI)) by ZnO/LECA as a nano photocatalyst using full factorial experimental design

Subject Areas : Journal of Nanoanalysis

Safoora Karimi ¹ (1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Jundi-Shapur University of Technology, Dezful, Iran 2 Jundi-Shapur research institute, Dezful, Iran)
Aref Shokri ² (Department of chemistry, Faculty of Science, Payamenoor University, Tehran, Iran.)

Received: 2021-10-19 Accepted : 2021-10-19 Published : 2021-09-01

Keywords: SEM, ZnO nanoparticle, Nano photocatalyst, LECA,

Abstract :

In this research, a synthesized nano photocatalyst was prepared by supportingZnO nanoparticle on Lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LECA). The catalystwas synthesized by the co-precipitation method. The SEM, FT-IR, and XRD testswere used to characterize ZnO/LECA, which was employed for photocatalyticremoval of Cr (VI) from an aqueous solution in a batch photoreactor. The fullfactorial experimental design (FFD) was used for the statistical analysis of data.The influence of catalyst amounts, pH, and initial concentration of Cr (VI) wasinvestigated on the reduction of Cr (VI) to Cr (III). The number of active sites wasincreased with an increase in the concentration of catalyst to some extent. Also,the selection of other factors in the optimized amount was important. The optimalconditions were obtained at 0.75 g/l of photocatalyst, pH at 5 and 20 mg/l ofCr(VI). The experimental and predicted reduction efficiency by FFD at optimalconditions were 97.6 and 96.18%, respectively. The comparison of experimentaland predicted data showed a good agreement between them.