Synthesis and characterization of Fe2O3/CuO nanocomposite as a new photocatalyst for solar degradation of methylene blue dye in aqueous solution

Fe2O3/CuO nanocomposite were prepared using a Schiff base complex as precursor by solid state thermal decomposition method 1-4. The nanocomposite was characterized by XRD, FT-IR, SEM, VSM and UV-Vis spectroscopy. Spherical particles of the nanocomposite (20-30 nm) were obtained. The band gap of superparamagnetic nanocomposite was estimated to be 4.2 eV. The photocatalytic performance of the nanocomposite was evaluated for degradation of methylene blue dye in aqueous solution (5 mg/Lit) at optimized condition (30 °C, 5 mg of catalyst, 20 mL H2O2 and pH =11) under solar light (average light intensity of 180 mW cm-2). This nanocomposite destroyed this dye in 2 min with efficiency of 95%. The kinetics of MB degradation was obtained to be the pseudo-first order model, k= 0.038 cm-1.

کلیدواژه ها:

Fe2O3/CuO nanocomposite ، Photocatalyst ، Methylene blue ، Solar degradation