Effective photocatalytic degradation of Congo red dye using alginate/carboxymethyl cellulose/TiO2 nanocomposite hydrogel under direct sunlight irradiation
Abstract Nanocomposite hydrogels of barium ion crosslinked alginate/carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) with encapulation of TiO 2 NPs were synthesized sucessfully using dissipative convective method followed by freeze drying procedure. As prepared composite hydrogels were charecterized by different techniques such as Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT IR) Powder X ray diffraction (PXRD) UV Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV DRS) BET Surface area study, Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X ray analysis (SEM EDAX) Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and mechanical strength study. Ba/Alg/CMC/TiO2 composite hydrogels exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity towards CR under direct solar light irradiation with pseudo first order kinetics. The recycling ability of Ba/Alg/CMC/TiO2 composite hydrogels confirms that photocatalyst is highly photostable.