Photodegradation of Rhodamine B using Cd-Al/C double layered hydroxide catalyst

Abstract

This paper presents the degradation of Rhodamine B using cadmium aluminium carbon (Cd-Al/C) catalyst under visible light. The layered double hydroxide was successfully prepared from cadmium fluoride (CdF₂), aluminium chloride (AlCl₃), and rice husks activated carbon, and then characterized by X-ray Diffaraction (XRD) Scaning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) methods. The peaks at 2Ө 23.4 and 35.5 in the XRD result confirmed the presences of LDH. The effect of contact time, catalyst dosage, pH and initial concentration, on the photo degradiation of Rhodamine B were investigated. The experimental results showed that after 100min visible light irradiation, the percentage degradation using 200mg Cd-Al/C, pH 7 and 3ppm Rhodamine B concentration reached to 76.22%.  For kinetics studies the data obtained were analysed using pseudo first order and pseudo second order kinetic models. From the linear regression coefficient values the data were found to be best fitted to pseudo second order kinetics. The results revealed that the Cd-Al/C show good catalytic activity.

Key words: Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH) Cadnium fluoride, Aluminium Chloride and Rhodamine B.