Low power LED assisted effective photodegradation of cationic and anionic dyes by zinc phthalocyanine based 2D polyamide sensitized CuO photocatalyst

Abstract

The present investigation details the synthesis and photocatalytic performance of an organic-inorganic hybrid system involving phthalocyanine-based 2D polyamide sensitized CuO photocatalyst in the presence of low-power LED visible light. Zinc phthalocyanine-based 2D polyamide (2D-ZnPcPA), CuO nanomaterial and their nanocomposites (2D-ZnPcPA@CuO) were successfully synthesized and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to understand the structure, size, morphology and optical properties. To examine the photodegradation capability of newly synthesized photocatalysts in the presence of the low-power white LED (16 W) as a source of visible light, cationic methylene blue (MB) and anionic congo red (CR) dyes were employed as modular pollutants. The impact of different parameters on photocatalytic activity such as photocatalyst dosage, contact time, pH of dye solution and photocatalyst re-usage, is examined. The results indicate that photosensitizing CuO with 2D-ZnPcPA improved photocatalytic performance for the photodegradation of MB and CR dyes substantially. The removal effectiveness of MB and CR under optimised conditions was determined to be greater than 96 and 93% in 90 minutes respectively.