Development of Au/MOF-5 photocatalyst for the degradation of methylene blue

The aim of this thesis is to develop Au/MOF-5 photocatalyst which shows high efficiency and reusability performance in the photocatalytic degradation reaction of methylene blue in water. Au/MOF-5 catalyst was prepared according to the impregnation-reduction method. The prepared Au/MOF-5 catalyst was characterized by ICP-OES, P-XRD, DR-UV-Vis, SEM, SEM-EDX, TEM and XPS analysis. The performance of Au/MOF-5 catalyst in the photocatalytic degradation reaction of MB in water was investigated for different parameters such as temperature, catalyst amount, substrate amount and reusability. The results showed that Au/MOF-5 catalyst provided 100% conversion in the photocatalytic degradation reaction of MB. In addition, the cycle number (TONtam) was 14.09 and the cycle frequency (TOFtam) was 0.078 h-1 in this important photocatalytic reaction. Finally, the temperature dependent activation parameters (Ea, ∆H# and ΔS#) were calculated for the photocatalytic degradation reaction of MB catalyzed by Au/MOF-5 catalyst. Ea=21.49 kJ/mol, ∆H=18.88 kJ/mol and ΔS=-242.737 kJ/mol, respectively.