A Facile Synthesis of Cu/Ta@SBA composite for the degradation of Methyl Orange under UV irradiation

Abstract

The mesoporous silica grafted tantalum and copper(II) composite was synthesised. The composites i.e.,SBA15, CuSBA (CuSi) and Cu/Ta@SBA (TaCuSi) grafting and stability was investigated by several spectroscopic, sorption, thermal analysis and microscopic techniques, i.e, Fourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Diffuse Reflections UV-visible spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), RAMAN spectroscopy and the catalytic activity of composites were studied in photo degradation of the methyl orange (MO) under UV light irradiation. The catalytic activity of TaCuSi was higher when compared to that of CuSi. The photo oxidation ability of photocatalysts was determined by the spectrophotometrically. The percentage of degradation and rate of reaction was more for TaCuSi. The catalytic activity of recovered and purified TaCuSi was checked with the fresh catalyst. The recovered catalyst shows comparable activity with fresh catalyst.