Efficient utilization of ceramic waste (cyclone dust waste) for enhancing the photocatalytic performance of TiO2 nanoparticles toward Rhodamine B photodegradation

Owing to the increase in the world's population, industrial demands are significantly increasing, and air/water pollution has become a global threat that severely affects human health. Many pollutants are discharged into the ecosystem, ceramic dust/wastes cause air pollution and textile dyes are among the recalcitrant organic water pollutants. This requires efficient waste management and waste remediation. Photocatalysis is one of the most efficient technologies for treating organic pollutants, where TiO2 nanoparticles are the most widely used photocatalysts. However, the wide bandgap and rapid recombination rates of TiO2 nanoparticles impede their practical applications. Herein, we are hitting "two birds with one stone" by utilizing ceramic waste powder in the fabrication of photocatalysts to degrade organic pollutants. The employed ceramic waste "cyclone dust waste (CDW)" was used as filler materials during the sol-gel synthesis of TiO2 photocatalyst. The synthesis method is a facile and cost-effective route because CDW was employed as obtained from the production line without any further processing. Different loading percentages of CDW were in-situ added to the TiO2 and investigated toward the photodegradation of Rhodamine B dye as a primary pollutant model, where 30%CDW-TiO2 nanocomposite was the optimum sample that achieved 2.6-fold enhancement compared to the bare TiO2. The physicochemical properties of the as-fabricated samples were investigated using different techniques, including XRD, HR-TEM, FE-SEM, DRS, and PL. It was found that the as-prepared CDW extended the light absorption capability of the 30%CDW-TiO2 nanocomposite toward the visible light. The PL results showed the reduction of e-h recombination rate in 30%CDW-TiO2 nanocomposite owing to the constructed Type-II/Z-scheme heterojunction. This work will open the door to the investigation of different wastes to be used as filler materials to be incorporated in the synthesis of value-added compounds.