The degradation of organic dye contaminants in wastewater and solution from highly visible light responsive ZIF-67 monodisperse photocatalyst.

Zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-67 with a pore-structural network has many potential applications in photocatalysis fields due to their intrinsic properties such as high porosity and large surface area. ZIF-67 is prepared under a one-step hydrothermal reaction from cobalt salt in methanol. The morphological and photocatalytic characteristics of ZIF-67 are performed by XRD, SEM, UV–Vis, PL spectroscopy, and BET. The as-synthesized nanoparticles have a nearly monodisperse structure with a large size of ~600 ​nm. In addition, these ZIF-67 micropores show an excellent efficiency for the methyl orange (MO) photodegradation under visible-light irradiation. In particular, more than 88% of MO is degraded within 1 ​h when using 0.5 ​g ​L−1 of ZIF-67. Besides, the photocatalytic and kinetic performances of ZIF-67 are investigated by optimizing pH value, initial MO concentration in solution, and initial dose of used catalyst. ZIF-67 nanocrystals are demonstrated to be a remarkable material with high photostability and easy reusability. 3D zeolitic imidazolate framework cobalt-derived ZIF-67 is well-known to be a potential pore-structural material, resulting in no large-particle-sized nuclei in nitrate salts by Hofmeister anion effect. Surprisingly, the as-synthetic nanocrystals gained nearly monodisperse structure with a large size for the efficient photodegradation of organic dyes under visible-light conditions. ZIF-67, high photostability and easy reusability, worked quite effectively in a wide pH range.". [Display omitted] • ZIF-67 exhibited an effective photocatalytic performance under visible light with photostability and reusability. • Approximately 88% of the MO concentration was degraded within 1 ​h by using 0.5 ​g ​L−1 of ZIF-67. • MO photodegradation followed pseudo-first-order kinetics with a rate constant k of 0.036 min−1. • ZIF-67 worked quite effectively in a wide pH range (3 to 11). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]