Remove safranin dye from the aqueous solution using ZnO stabilized on zeolite in the presence of ultraviolet light

Dye is one of the most important environmental pollutants which threats human and environmental health. Due to the solubility and high stability of dye in water, incremental attention has been paid to their destruction and removal from industrial effluents. In this study, the efficacy of ZnO nanoparticles coated on natural zeolite (Zeo) as photocatalyst was evaluated to destroy the safranin dye in water solution under UV light. In order to determine the optimal conditions, the effect of dye concentration and solution pH were investigated. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy images show that ZnO is well situated on the Zeo surface and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis confirmed the presence of Fe-ZSM5 Zeo and ZnO anatase phase in the synthesized photocatalyst. Optimal values of pH and the dye concentration for dye removal by synthesized UV/ ZnO-Zeo photocatalyst were 9 and 100 mg/L, respectively. The maximum safranin dye removal (100%) in optimal conditions under UV light was obtained after 105 min. Also, the maximum adsorption capacity ZnO-Zeo catalyst for safranin was 26.35 mg/g. The removal efficiency reduced from 93% at run first to 32.15% at run fifth. In general, the results showed that the UV/ZnO-Zeo process can be used as an effective and efficient method in removing the safranin from aqueous environments.