Abstract
In the present work, Co3O4, 1% chromium doped Co3O4 (1% Cr:Co3O4), and 5% chromium doped Co3O4 (5% Cr:Co3O4) was successfully prepared by simple chemical co-precipitation method followed by calcination at 400°C for 3 h. The synthesized nanoparticles materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Brunauer Emmett Teller analysis (BET), and UV-visible spectroscopy. XRD confirmed the formation of cubic nature of nanoparticles while SEM images shown spherical structure. BET analysis confirmed the mesoporous behaviour of nanoparticles. UV-Visible spectra have been used to determine band gap and photo-oxidation behaviour of organic dye methyl orange. Experimental data suggested that 5% Cr:Co3O4 nanoparticles catalyst possessed the highest catalytic activity towards MB degradation in aqueous solution at the tested concentration level of 50 mg/L, higher than that of pure Co3O4.
Highlights
Oxides of transition metal with spinel structure are one of the most important magnetic materials [10], the generalised formulation for the magnetic spinel can be denoted as AB2O4 (A=Zn, Fe, Co, Ni, Mg, etc.; B=Fe, Cr, Mn, Al, etc.), where A and B symbolizes the divalent and trivalent cat ions, respectively
The improvement of photocatalytic activity of 1% chromium doped Co3O4 (1% Cr):Co3O4 and 5% chromium doped Co3O4 (5% Cr):Co3O4 NPs could be achieved due to a decrease of band gap values, which in turn cause an increase of electron-hole formation under visible light irradiation
The results indicate that 5% Cr:Co3O4 is an excellent photo catalyst and photocatalytic activity of these materials follows the following trend; 5% Cr:Co3O4>1% Cr:Co3O4>Co3O4 for degradation of dye methylene blue (MB) (Figure 8)
Summary
From the several last decades, more attentions have been paid for the preparation of nanocrystalline materials with appropriate size, geometry and stoichiometry to enhanced the magnetic activity as compare to their bulk counterpart. We have employed a simple co-precipitation method to achieve nano-sized chromium doped cobalt oxide (Cr:Co3O4) nanoparticles and their photocatalytic activity was checked out by applying methylene blue (MB) dyes as toxic materials under the radiation of visible light.
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