Fabrication of nanostructured CuWO4 for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in aqueous solution

Abstract

In this paper, nanostructured CuWO4 prepared by precipitation method was characterized using X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscope, and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. We evaluated the photocatalytic activity of nanostructured CuWO4 by the degradation of methylene blue (MB), amido black (AB) and orange G (OG) dyes in aqueous solutions under sunlight irradiation. The degradation efficiency of the three dyes within 120 min followed the order: MB > AB > OG. The results demonstrated that the dyes degradation process follows Langmuir–Hinshelwood first order kinetics. The effect of pH has been studied to the MB decolorization. High photocatalytic efficiency 96 % was observed for the degradation of MB at pH 10 after 120 min under natural sunlight irradiation. The stability of the nanostructured CuWO4 for the degradation of MB has also been investigated and highly stable performance in recycling photocatalytic reaction was obtained after 5 cycles of use.