Photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange using Zn@[Fe(CN) ₅ NO] complex under sunlight irradiation

Abstract

The objective of the current study is the use of a zinc nitroprusside (Zn@[Fe(CN)5NO]) complex as a new photo-catalyst for the degradation of the methyl orange from aqueous solution. The zinc nitroprusside synthesized by a drop by drop method and characterized by different methods, such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The optical properties of this complex were studied by UV-visible spectrophotometer, and the optical band gap was found to be 1.51 eV. In another hand, the as-synthesized complex was applied for the methyl orange degradation under sunlight irradiation. Four main parameters were investigated, that is, the influence of the photo-catalyst dose (0.25 − 1.25) g.L–1, H2O2 concentration (0.048 − 2.38) × 10−1 mol.L–1, pH medium (2 − 9), and initial concentration of the dye (10 − 50) mg.L–1. At room temperature, the maximum degradation ratio was obtained at pH 2, using methyl orange concentration of 10 mg.L–1, hydrogen peroxide of 1.91 × 10−1 mol.L–1 and 0.5 g.L–1 of the catalyst dose. The obtained results show that the zinc nitroprusside has good photo-catalytic propriety for the photo-degradation of methyl orange.