Synthesis and characterization of TiO2-Montmorillonite/Polythiophene-SDS nanocomposites: Application in the sonophotocatalytic degradation of rhodamine 6G

Titanium dioxide-montmorillonite/Polythiophene-sodium dodecyl sulphate (TiO2-Mt/PTP-SDS) nanocomposites were synthesized via the in situ intercalative oxidative polymerization of thiophene (TP) in TiO2-Mt clay and CHCl3 solvent using anhydrous ferric chloride (FeCl3) at ambient temperature for 24 h in the presence of anionic surfactant SDS at a ratio by mass of 20% of TP/TiO2-Mt. The TiO2-Mt was obtained by the modification of sodium montmorillonite (Na-Mt) with titanium isopropoxide (Ti (OPri) 4) at 50 °C for 3 h. The products obtained were characterized using different techniques, such as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Fluorescence Analysis (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM), which proved the successful intercalation of polythiophene in the TiO2-MT in the presence of anionic surfactants. The degradation of rhodamine 6G (R6G) in aqueous solutions was investigated kinetically in the presence of catalysts under Sun-test simulator at 400 W/m2, sonocatalysis at 500 kHz (30 W), and sonophotocatalysis. The findings revealed that the TiO2-Mt/PTP20%-SDS catalyst exhibited good levels of photocatalytic, sonocatalytic, and sonophotocatalytic degradability for R6G. The synergistic effect between the two techniques was observed using TiO2-Mt/PTP20%-SDS (w %) as a catalyst, and the kinetic results indicated that enhanced degradation rate constants were achieved particularly with sonophotocatalytic processes.