Noncovalent Doping of Fullerene (C60) into ZnAl–LDH/PVA Matrix and Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue and Congo Red from Water

In this work fullerene (C 60 ) was noncovalently doped to zinc–aluminum layered double hydroxide/polyvinyl alcohol (ZnAl–LDH/PVA) nanocomposites and the obtained samples were used for the photodegradation of methylene blue and congo red dyes from water solution. The structural, optical properties, surface morphology, specific surface area and chemical composition of C 60 doped LDH were characterized by XRD, UV–Vis, PL, SEM, TEM and BET technique. The average crystallite size is increased from 8 to ~ 20 nm, and the dislocation density (δ) decreased from 0.0127 to ~ 0.003 nm 2 by the increasing the amount of C 60 doping 1% to 10%, 20% and 60%. Fullerene was used as a dopant and support material to improve the photocatalytic activity of LDH. The photodegradation parameters were determined with 1%, 10%, 20% and 60%wt of C 60 doped LDH under visible-light. A complete photodegradation of MB (PD% = ~ 99%) on the nanocomposites occurred during 10 h irradiation The photodegradation rate constant (k app ) is 0.024 min −1 for CR onto 1% C 60 doped ZnAl–LDH/PVA. The results show that noncovalent doped C 60 into ZnAl–LDH/PVA matrix reduces the recombination of electron–hole pairs and increases the efficiency of the photocatalyst.