Sunlight active composite photocatalyst for water purification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9795948-B2
Application number	US-201514599358-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 16, 2015
Priority date	Jan 16, 2015
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

The sunlight active composite photocatalyst for water purification includes ZnO (zinc oxide) and Co 3 O 4 (cobalt II, III oxide). The composite photocatalyst may, in the presence of natural sunlight, achieve complete mineralization of chemical and biological contaminants in water without leaving any hazardous by-products. The composite photocatalyst may be synthesized by a sol gel route or process.

First claim

We claim:

1. A sunlight active composite photocatalyst for water purification and activation by absorption of sunlight, consisting of:
ZnO (zinc oxide); and
Co 3 O 4 (cobalt II, III oxide) dispersed on the surface of the ZnO.

2. A method for producing a sunlight active composite photocatalyst for water purification, comprising the steps of:
synthesizing ZnO;
forming a ZnO—Co (OH) 2 co-gel by mixing the ZnO with Co 2+ solution;
heating the ZnO—Co (OH) 2 co-gel to form a slurry;
drying the slurry to form a powder; and
calcining the powder.

3. The method for producing a sunlight active composite photocatalyst according to claim 2 , further comprising the steps of:
dissolving zinc acetate in deionized water to form a solution;
hydrolyzing the solution with KOH to form a hydrated ZNO gel;
heating the gel at 250° C. for 2 hrs;
drying the gel to form ZnO powder; and
calcining the ZnO powder.

4. The method for producing a sunlight active composite photocatalyst according to claim 2 , further comprising step of heating the ZnO—Co (OH) 2 co-gel to a temperature of about 250° C.

5. The method for producing a sunlight active composite photocatalyst according to claim 2 , wherein the slurry is dried in a hot air oven at a temperature of about 100° C.

6. A method for purifying water, comprising the step of submerging a photocatalyst in water, the photocatalyst being a composite consisting of:
ZnO (zinc oxide); and
Co 3 O 4 (cobalt II, III oxide) dispersed on the surface of the ZnO.

Assignees

• Univ King Abdulaziz

Inventors

• Muhammad Abdul Hameed Fateh
• Inayatullah Mohammad Aslam
• Ismail Iqbal M I
• Chandrasekaran Sivaraman

Classifications

• B01J2235/30

  Scanning electron microscopy; Transmission electron microscopy · CPC title

• B01J2235/15

  X-ray diffraction · CPC title

• B01J2235/10

  Infrared [IR] · CPC title

• B01J2235/00

  Indexing scheme associated with group B01J35/00, related to the analysis techniques used to determine the catalysts form or properties · CPC title

• B01J35/026

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic