Abstract
The contamination of aquatic environments by colored and toxic dyes such as rhodamine-B causes many problems for the human health. Their high stability is a major problem for the removal of dyes. The adsorption technique can be used for the treatment of dyes efficiently. In this study, SrCoxBi4Ti4-xO15 nanostructures with different cobalt ions ratios (x = 0.0, 0.01, 0.03 and 0.05) are synthesized and characterized by XRD, XRF, FT-IR, Uv-vis, Uv-DRS, PL and TEM measurements. Ethanolamine is used as a precipitating agent. All samples crystallized in an orthorhombic crystalline system according to the XRD patterns and have layered morphology as determined by the TEM analysis. Compared with SrBi4Ti4O15, samples doped with cobalt (II) ions show a shift toward lower angles in their XRD patterns, a shift toward lower wavelength side, and higher bond gap energy. In addition, the luminescence intensity is decreased with the increase in the Co2+ concentration. The adsorption capacity of SrCoxBi4Ti4-xO15 nanostructures on the removal of rhodamine B (RB) from the aqueous medium was investigated under ambient temperature. The effective parameters on the adsorption such as catalyst dosage, dye concentration, pH and time are optimized. In comparison with the pure SrBi4Ti4O15, compounds doped with Co2+ have better adsorption capacity for RB.
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Iran National Science Foundation; INSF (97013839).