MgAl2O4 nanospinel: Green synthesis, characterization and effective heterogeneous catalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of carbol fuchsin dye and synthesis of 2-aryl substituted benzoxazole derivatives

Abstract

In this study we report, plant extract mediated green, expedient, cost effective and environment friendly synthesis of MgAl2O4 nanospinel and their potential application in the field of photocatalytic degradation of organic contaminant and biologically active benzoxazole synthesis. The synthesized spinel material was characterized by XRD, TGA, FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDAX, TEM, UV–Visible spectra, XPS and BET for obtaining the structural, morphological, optical, and textural properties. Sunlight driven photocatalytic degradation efficiency of this catalyst was performed on a widely used industrial dye carbol fuchsin (CF) which is a major contaminant that is being mixed in water resources. The contamination could be degraded upto 96.84 % when its concentration is 30 ppm at pH 9, by the nanospinel of 0.6 g/L. Kinetic model of degradation follows pseudo- first order kinetic with rate constant of 0.043 min−1. Also the nanospinel has the key benefits in the synthesis of some benzoxazole derivatives as a catalyst, that its shorter reaction time, excellent yield, safety and moderate reaction conditions, non-toxicity and simple work up procedures.