One-pot hydrothermal synthesis of zeolite/sodium tantalate composite and its photodegradation of methyl orange.

Sodalite/NaTaO 3 composite was prepared by a one-pot hydrothermal synthesis method. Sodalite and NaTaO 3 grow interpenetrated, and the resulting composites have similar morphology as the pure sodalite. The sodalite/NaTaO 3 composite has a lower band gap of 3.35 eV due to the heterogeneous doping effect, and exhibits an enhanced photodegradation of methyl orange under UV irradiation as compared to the pure NaTaO 3 . A slight structure distortion is found for NaTaO 3 after removing sodalite by acid washing the sodalite/NaTaO 3 composite, and such result further confirms the co-growth of the two crystals. This one-pot hydrothermal method opens up new avenues for the preparation of photocatalytic composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]