Effect of supporting and hybridizing of FeO and ZnO semiconductors onto an Iranian clinoptilolite nano-particles and the effect of ZnO/FeO ratio in the solar photodegradation of fish ponds waste water

The goal of this work is to use the supported ZnO-FeO onto nano-clinoptilolite particles (NCP) in the photocatalytic degradation of the pollutants present in a fish ponds wastewater as a real sample under solar irradiation. Ion exchanging of the prepared ball-milling NCP in aqueous solution containing Zn(II) and Fe(II) cations and calcinations of the ion exchanged material at 450 degrees C led to the formation of ZnO-FeO/NCP catalyst. The raw and modified NCP samples were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, DRS and SEM. The degradation extent of the pollutants was calculated using UV-vis absorption of samples before and after irradiation process. The optimum values for the affecting experimental parameters were obtained as: 0.1 g L-1 of the photoocatalyst, initial concentration of wastewater and pH 8.3. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.