A comprehensive study on photocatalytic activity of supported Ni/Pb sulfide and oxide systems onto natural zeolite nanoparticles.

The Ni(II)-Pb(II) exchanged clinoptilolite nanoparticles (NCP) were transformed to corresponding oxides and sulfides via calcination and sulfiding processes, respectively. The obtained catalysts were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, TEM and DRS and used in photodegradation of p-nitrophenol (4-NP) aqueous solution under Hg-lamp irradiation. Results showed considerable increase in activity of the coupled semiconductors with respect to monocomponent one. In NiO-PbO-NCP system, conduction band (CB) of NiO is enough negative for easily migration of photogenerated electrons to CB-PbO level, while such phenomena take place from more negative CB-PbS level to CB-NiS level in NiS-PbS-NCP. These phenomena significantly prevented from electron-hole recombination which increased photocatalytic activity of the coupled semiconductors. Best photodegradation activities obtained by NiO1.3%-PbO14.7%-NCP and NiS2.1%-PbS10.0%-NCP, confirming semiconductors' mass-ratio dependence of the photocatalytic process. The supported coupled semiconductors showed blue shifts in band gap energies with respect to the bulk semiconductors which confirm formation of semiconductors nanoparticles inside the zeolite framework. The highest degradation percentage of 4-NP was obtained at: 0.5gL(-1) photocatalysts, 15mgL(-1) 4-NP at pH 7.5.