Synthesis and characterization of TiO2–Montmorillonite/Polythiophene-SDS nanocomposites: Application in the sonophotocatalytic degradation of rhodamine 6G

Abstract Titanium dioxide–montmorillonite/Polythiophene–sodium dodecyl sulphate (TiO2–Mt/PTP–SDS) nanocomposites were synthesized via the in situ intercalative oxidative polymerization of thiophene (TP) in TiO2–Mt clay and CHCl3 solvent using anhydrous ferric chloride (FeCl3) at ambient temperature for 24 h in the presence of anionic surfactant SDS at a ratio by mass of 20% of TP/TiO2–Mt. The TiO2–Mt was obtained by the modification of sodium montmorillonite (Na-Mt) with titanium isopropoxide (Ti (OPri) 4) at 50 °C for 3 h. The products obtained were characterized using different techniques, such as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Fluorescence Analysis (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM), which proved the successful intercalation of polythiophene in the TiO2–MT in the presence of anionic surfactants. The degradation of rhodamine 6G (R6G) in aqueous solutions was investigated kinetically in the presence of catalysts under Sun-test simulator at 400 W/m2, sonocatalysis at 500 kHz (30 W), and sonophotocatalysis. The findings revealed that the TiO2–Mt/PTP20%-SDS catalyst exhibited good levels of photocatalytic, sonocatalytic, and sonophotocatalytic degradability for R6G. The synergistic effect between the two techniques was observed using TiO2–Mt/PTP20%-SDS (w %) as a catalyst, and the kinetic results indicated that enhanced degradation rate constants were achieved particularly with sonophotocatalytic processes.