Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange and Methylene Blue with CuO-Fe2O3 Nanocomposite in Aqueous Solution

نویسندگان

1 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran

doi
10.22036/j10.22036.2025.494603.1178
چکیده

New heterojunction transition metal oxides due to their unique properties have gained much attention in the photodegradation of organic dyes. Therefore, in this work, a new heterojunction CuO-Fe2O3 was prepared using a simple solution process technique, and characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB) photodegradation properties of CuO-Fe2O3 nanocomposite were studied with various parameters such as initial pH solution, amount of catalyst dose, and different contact times under visible light irradiation. Results confirmed that the MO and MB were completely (99.6% and 98.4%, respectively) using CuO-Fe2O3 after about 120 min. The photodegradation process was also studied using pseudo-first-order (PFO) and pseudo-second-order (PSO) kinetic models. The results obeyed from PSO model. Finally, CuO-Fe2O3 is a promising photocatalyst to be developed in the removal of other organic dyes from aqueous solutions and also industrial wastewater.