Synthesis of mesoporous N-doped TiO2/ZnAl-layered double oxides nanocomposite for efficient photodegradation of methyl orange

Mesoporous nano-composites of N-doped TiO2 supported on ZnAl-layered double oxides (abbreviated as N-TiO2/ZnAl-LDO) were facilely synthesized by an adsorption-sol-gel method. The synthesized N-TiO2/ZnAl-LDO photocatalysts were systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N2 adsorption/desorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Ultraviolet–visible (UV−vis) absorption. N2 adsorption/desorption tests confirmed that the fabricated N-TiO2/ZnAl-LDO nanocomposites were mesoporous structure and SEM images showed that N-TiO2 nanoparticles were highly dispersed on the ZnAl-LDO support. Besides, UV–vis absorption further suggested that the absorption band of the compounds had a red-shift obviously. The fabricated N-TiO2/ZnAl-LDO catalysts were used for the photo-degradation of methyl orange under UV and visible light radiation, respectively. The catalytic results showed that N-TiO2/ZnAl-LDO catalyst displayed the highest degradation rate with 96.2% at 0.5 h under UV light irradiation, when the ratio of N-TiO2 versus ZnAl-LDO was 1. Under visible light irradiation, remarkable high rate was obtained with 87.6% degradation rate at 1 h.