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A facile route to synthesize n-SnO2/p-CuFe2O4 to rapidly degrade toxic methylene blue dye under natural sunlight

Duan, K and Que, T and Koppala, S and Balan, R and Lokesh, B and Pillai, R and David, S and Karthikeyan, P and Ramamoorthy, S and Lekshmi, IC and Kemacheevakul, P and Padmavathy, N and Munusamy, S (2022) A facile route to synthesize n-SnO2/p-CuFe2O4 to rapidly degrade toxic methylene blue dye under natural sunlight. In: RSC Advances, 12 (26). pp. 16544-16553.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1039/d2ra01690g

Abstract

In the present study, the n-SnO2/p-CuFe2O4 (p-CFO) complex was prepared by a two-step process. p-CFO synthesized by the molten salt method was coated with SnO2 synthesized by a facile in situ chemical precipitation method. The formation of n-SnO2/p-CFO was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that the sharp edges of uncoated pyramid-like p-CFO particles were covered by a thick layer of n-SnO2 on coated p-CFO particles. The complete absence of Cu and only 3 wt Fe on the surface of the n-p complex observed in the elemental analysis using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) on the n-p complex confirmed the presence of a thick layer of SnO2 on the p-CFO surface. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) was employed to elucidate the bandgap engineering. The n-SnO2/p-CFO complex and p-CFO showed 87 and 58.7 methylene blue (MB) degradation in 120 min under sunlight, respectively. The efficiency of the n-p complex recovered after 5 cycles (73.5) and was found to be higher than that of the uncoated p-CFO (58.7). The magnetically separable property of the n-p complex was evaluated by using vibration sample magnetometry (VSM) measurements and it was confirmed that the prepared photocatalyst can be easily recovered using an external magnet. The study reveals that the prepared complex could be a potential candidate for efficient photodegradation of organic dyes under sunlight due to its efficient recovery and reusability owing to its magnetic properties.

Item Type: Journal Article
Publication: RSC Advances
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
Additional Information: The copyright for this article belongs to the Author.
Keywords: Aromatic compounds; Energy dispersive spectroscopy; Precipitation (chemical); Recovery; Reusability, Chemical precipitation method; Methylene blue dye; Molten-salts method; Natural sunlight; Scanning electron microscopy image; Sharp edges; SnO 2; Synthesised; Thick layers; Two-step process, Scanning electron microscopy
Department/Centre: Division of Mechanical Sciences > Materials Engineering (formerly Metallurgy)
Date Deposited: 16 Sep 2022 06:24
Last Modified: 16 Sep 2022 06:24
URI: https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/76537

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