Photocatalytic performance of β-Ga2O3 microcubes towards efficient degradation of malachite green

Abstract

In this work, the photocatalytic degradation of malachite green (MG) solutions by β-Ga2O3 was investigated. The latter was synthetized by reacting gallium nitrate with concentrated formic acid, which produced gallium formate. The thermal decomposition of this compound at 850 °C produced single-phase β-Ga2O3. The resulting morphology corresponds to non-agglomerated microcubes, with a size in the range of 0.8 and 2.3 μm. The surface chemical composition and bandgap energy of this oxide were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the Tauc method, respectively. The photodegradation of MG was carried out under violet light (λ = 405 nm), at room temperature, using the as-prepared powder. The results revealed a fast degradation of the dye during the first 20 min, which attenuates over time. The rate of photodegradation depends on the amount of β-Ga2O3 used and can be fitted by an exponential equation. The role of free hydroxyl radicals and reactive oxygen species in photocatalysis was addressed by using analytic techniques (FTIR and XPS).