Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of Zn-Al Layered Double Hydroxides for Methyl Violet and Peat Water Photooxidation

Zn-Al Layered Double Hydroxides (Zn-Al LDHs) and its calcined form were successfully prepared and utilized for the removal of methyl violet (MV) and treatment of peat water by photocatalytic oxidation. The research was aimed to evaluate the effect of calcination to Zn-Al LDHs for the effect on the physicochemical character and the capability as a photocatalyst. The characterization of the samples was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer–Emmet–Teller specific surface area (BET), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that the increased BET specific surface area along with the enhanced porous structure was achieved by the calcination procedure, which is associated with the enhanced interlayer space of d(003) identified by XRD analysis. Thermal conversion showed an influence to the increased band gap energy from 3.10 eV in the uncalcined Zn-Al LDHs into 3.16 eV for the calcined material. These character changes contributed to the enhanced photocatalytic activity of the Zn-AL LDHs by calcination, which was proposed and verified by experiments. It was observed that photocatalytic activity of the material for MV gave about a 45.57% removal of MV and a 68% removal for the natural organic material of the peat water.