Preparation of zinc oxide graphted nickel incorporated mesoporous SBA-16 doped graphene oxide: An efficient catalyst for transesterification of waste edible oil to biodiesel and photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes

Abstract

Graphene-based composite materials a wide range of applications, including the production of electronic components and capacitors, as well as adsorption and catalysis. In this work, the ZnO/Ni-SBA-16@GO nanocatalyst was applied to synthesized biodiesel from waste edible oil (WEO) as an efficient and easily available source. The said nanomaterial was applied for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO). The catalyst was characterized by HRTEM, XRD (small angle and wide angle), SEM, EDX, BET, N2 adsorption/desorption isotherm, and TGA. The findings illustrated that the nanostructure has well-controlled pore diameter (4.0 nm) and prominent surface area (735 m2/g). Furthermore, it was possible to reuse the catalyst up to five times; with the results indicating that the catalyst's catalytic activity was sufficient for the synthesis of WEO biodiesel for up to three cycles before diminishing. The present study used a centralized composite approach to look at the influence of numerous features on biodiesel synthesis in order to discover the optimal conditions for biodiesel production. According to the findings, the maximum biodiesel conversion yields 98% had been obtained during a 7-hour reaction time at a temperature of 70 °C. The nanostructure has also been worked as a photocatalyst to degrade MB and MO. According to the statistics, more than 90% of both dyes were degraded in less than 40 min.