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 photocatalytic studies of Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles (CoONPs). In order to synthesize the CoONPs, a tetra-nuclear cobalt(III)-Schiff base complex was prepared in the crystalline phase and employed to produce CoONPs through the 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 (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM)) analyses estimate the cauliflower-structured CoONPs with an average size of ~ 80 nm. The photocatalytic behavior of CoONPs has been tested against Murexide (MX) and Titan Yellow (TY) dye in the aqueous phase. This CoONPs ensure more than 90% degradation for MX, while ~ 60% degradation has been observed for TY in the aqueous phase for the same time interval. MX and TY adopt different structures, which bring variations in the rate of photosensitization for the synthetic CoONPs photocatalyst and account for the different photocatalytic efficiency towards the degradation of MX and TY in the presence of visible light.