Investigation of operation parameters on the removal efficiency of methyl orange pollutant by cellulose/zinc oxide hybrid aerogel

In this study, Cellulose/Zinc Oxide-x (CA/ZnO-x) hybrid aerogel with various concentrations of Zn²⁺ ion is synthesized through the hydrothermal method and used for organic pollutant removal. The CA/ZnO-x hybrid aerogel was characterized by XRD, UV–Visible, DRS, FTIR, FESEM, EDS, BET, LC-MS-MS analyses. In the present study, CA/ZnO-x hybrid aerogel as photocatalyst was used to investigate the influence of the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO) from an aqueous solution under UV irradiation. The morphology of CA/ZnO-x hybrid aerogels exhibited that the ZnO rice grain-like shape were successfully synthesized on the cellulose aerogel matrix. Also, the influence of various factors such as photocatalyst dosage, pH, initial concentration of MO, and irradiation intensity was investigated on the photocatalytic degradation rate of MO. The results revealed that the highest degradation efficiency and mineralization rate of MO were about 99.02% and 51.68%, respectively, after 90 min under UV irradiation using CA/ZnO-0.4 photocatalyst when pH = 3, C₀ = 10 ppm, photocatalyst dose = 9 g L⁻¹ under the 300 W UV light irradiation. Furthermore, the synthesized photocatalyst exhibited a considerable firmness and easily separated from an aqueous solution for reuse.