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Structural rearrangement of mesostructured silica nanoparticles incorporated with ZnO catalyst and its photoactivity: Effect of alkaline aqueous electrolyte concentration
Jusoh N.W.C.a, Jalil A.A.a, Triwahyono S.a, Karim A.H.a, Salleh N.F.a, Annuar N.H.R.a, Jaafar N.F.a, Firmansyah M.L.a, Mukti R.R.b, Ali M.W.a
a Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
b Division of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, 40132, Indonesia
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_separator css=”.vc_custom_1624529070653{padding-top: 30px !important;padding-bottom: 30px !important;}”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner layout=”boxed”][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1624695412187{border-right-width: 1px !important;border-right-color: #dddddd !important;border-right-style: solid !important;border-radius: 1px !important;}”][vc_empty_space][megatron_heading title=”Abstract” size=”size-sm” text_align=”text-left”][vc_column_text]© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ZnO-incorporated mesostructured silica nanoparticles (MSN) catalysts (ZM) were prepared by the introduction of Zn ions into the framework of MSN via a simple electrochemical system in the presence of various concentrations of NH 4 OH aqueous solution. The physicochemical properties of the catalysts were studied by XRD, 29 Si MAS NMR, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, FE-SEM, TEM, FTIR, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Characterization results demonstrated that the alkaline aqueous electrolyte simply generated abundant silanol groups on the surface of the catalysts as a consequence of desilication to form the hierarchical-like structure of the MSN. Subsequent restructuring of the silica network by the creation of oxygen vacancies and formation of Si-O-Zn during the electrolysis, as well as formation of new Si-O-Si bonds during calcination seemed to be the main factors that enhanced the catalytic performance of photodecolorization of methyl orange. A ZM prepared in the presence of 1.0 M NH 4 OH (ZM-1.0) was determined to be the most effective catalyst. The catalyst displays a higher first-order kinetics rate of 3.87 × 10 -1 h -1 than unsupported ZnO (1.13 × 10 -1 h -1 ) that prepared under the same conditions in the absence of MSN. The experiment on effect of scavengers showed that hydroxyl radicals generated from the three main sources; reduced O 2 at the conduction band, decomposed water at the valence band and irradiated H 2 O 2 in the solution, are key factors that influenced the reaction. It is also noted that the recycled ZM-1.0 catalyst maintained its activity up to five runs without serious catalyst deactivation.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_separator css=”.vc_custom_1624528584150{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_empty_space][megatron_heading title=”Author keywords” size=”size-sm” text_align=”text-left”][vc_column_text]Alkaline aqueous electrolytes,Alkaline electrolytes,Electrochemical systems,Mesostructured silica,Nitrogen adsorption desorption,Photodecolorization,Physicochemical property,Structural rearrangement[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_separator css=”.vc_custom_1624528584150{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_empty_space][megatron_heading title=”Indexed keywords” size=”size-sm” text_align=”text-left”][vc_column_text]Alkaline electrolyte,Mesostructured silica nanoparticles,Photodecolorization,Structural rearrangement,Zinc oxide[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_separator css=”.vc_custom_1624528584150{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_empty_space][megatron_heading title=”Funding details” size=”size-sm” text_align=”text-left”][vc_column_text]The authors are grateful for the financial support by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (Grant No. 4F423 ) and the awards of MyPhD Scholarship (Nurfatehah Wahyuny Che Jusoh) from the Ministry of Higher Education . The authors also thankful to the Hitachi Scholarship Foundation for their support and the NANO-SciTech Centre of Universiti Teknologi Mara for the PL instrument.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_separator css=”.vc_custom_1624528584150{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_empty_space][megatron_heading title=”DOI” size=”size-sm” text_align=”text-left”][vc_column_text]https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2014.12.192[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_column_text]Widget Plumx[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator css=”.vc_custom_1624528584150{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row]