Fabricating MnxCd1-xS/ZIF-8 nanocatalysts to enhance sonophotocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants

This work describes the construction of efficient sonophotocatalysts, composed of MnxCd1-xS solid solution doped zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8). The properties of MnxCd1-xS/ZIF-8 heterostructure and its constituents were evaluated by the XRD, FESEM, EDX, DRS, PL and BET tests. The performance of MnxCd1-xS/ZIF-8 catalysts was assessed to degrade crystal violet (CV) dye from aqueous solutions as a model pollutant using an efficient sonophotocatalytic process. Under visible-light/sonication, the obtained Mn0.5Cd0.5S/50%-ZIF-8 presented higher sonophotocatalytic activity (97%) than bare Mn0.5Cd0.5S (76.7%) and ZIF-8 (65.8%) by using 1 g/l catalyst dose, 10 ppm CV dye, solution pH of 6.8 and an ultrasonic power of 180W within 60 min. Also, the recyclability trials of Mn0.5Cd0.5S/ZIF-8 catalyst exhibited that an insignificant decline (4.5% only) in the sonophotocatalytic degradation process occurred after five consecutive reaction cycles.