Facile synthesis of spinel CuCr2O4 nanoparticles and studies of their photocatalytic activity in degradation of some selected organic dyes

Abstract

Copper chromite (CuCr2O4) spinel nanoparticle catalysts have been successfully synthesized employing urea assisted co-precipitation followed by calcination. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm (BET). The XRD pattern revealed formation of tetragonal body-centered CuCr2O4 and TEM image showed quasi-spherical particles of size 5–35 nm. The photocatalytic activity of CuCr2O4 was evaluated in degradation of some organic dyes such as methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO), and rhodamine B (RhB), without and with the assistance of H2O2 under solar irradiation. The CuCr2O4 photocatalysts showed high activity in degradation of RhB (93.6%) and MO (92.3%), but low activity in degradation of MB (80.6%). The catalyst reusability was tested by conducting the degradation of RhB dye with the spent catalyst and it was observed that the catalyst did not show any significant loss in its activity even after five cycles.