Fabrication of spent FCC catalyst composites by loaded V(2)O(5) and TiO(2) and their comparative photocatalytic activities

The spent fluid catalytic cracking catalyst (FCC) has been loaded with different content of V(2)O(5) and TiO(2) through a modified-impregnation method. X-ray Diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) are used to characterize the structure and morphology of these samples. Their photocatalytic activity was evaluated by degradation of methylene blue (MB) solution under 300 W Xenon lamp irradiation. The interplanar spacing of the zeolite Y (111) plane is affected by the amount of the loaded V(2)O(5) on spent FCC catalyst. The (111) plane of spent FCC catalyst loaded with V(2)O(5) and TiO(2) sample is 1.404 nm, which is higher than that of the zeolite Y (1.395 nm). The amount of adsorption of MB and the photocatalytic activity for the degradation increased with increasing the interplanar spacing of the (111) plane of sample. We fabricated of spent FCC catalyst composites by loaded V(2)O(5) and TiO(2), which effectively solved the spent FCC catalyst disposal problem. The efficiency of the developed sample provides a potentially economical way of degrading MB.