Visible Light Induced Photocatalytic Dye Degradation by Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

Considering the impact of organic dyes as industrial effluents on the environment, this research study describes the synthesis, structural and morphological characterization, and visible light induced photo-catalytic studies of cobalt oxide nanoparticles (CoONPs). In order to synthesize the CoONPs, a tetra-nuclear cobalt(III)-Schiff base complex was prepared in crystalline phase and employed to produce CoONPs through thermal decomposition of the synthetic precursor. The morphology of the nanoparticle has been delineated with different spectroscopic and analytic methods. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy (FE-SEM and HR-TEM) analyses estimate the cauliflower structured CoONPs with an average size ~80 nm. The photo-catalytic behavior of CoONPs has been tested against murexide and titan yellow dye in aqueous phase. This CoONPs ensure more than 90% of degradation for murexide while ~60% degradation has been observed for titan yellow (TY) in aqueous phase for a same time interval. MX and TY adopt different structures which bring the variation in rate of photosensitization for the synthetic CoONPs photocatalyst and account on the different photocatalytic efficiency towards the degradation of MX and TY in presence of visible light.