Synthesis, physicochemical and photocatalytic activities of nano ZnCo2O4 catalyst for photodegradation of various dyes under sunlight irradiation

The transition metal (Zn2+)-doped Co3O4 nanoparticle was tailored through thermal decomposition of precursor synthesized by simple co-precipitation which is an experimentally and economically comfortable method. The precursor was characterized using EDS, FTIR and thermogravimetric analysis. Also, the nano-sized metal oxide synthesized from its precursor was investigated by powder X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy. The specific surface area was scrutinized through Bruner-Emmet-Teller (BET) adsorption. The ferromagnetic property of the nanoparticle was detected using vibrating sample magnetometer. The photocatalytic degradation performance of nano ZnCo2O4 was evaluated using methyl orange (MO), rhodamine B (RhB) and Congo red (CR) dyes under sunlight. The nanoparticle demonstrated good photocatalytic activity towards azo dyes (MO and CR) rather than rhodamine (RhB)-based dye. The degradation of organic dyes was found to follow first-order kinetics.