Enhanced photocatlytic activity of two dimensional graphitic C₃N₄@Co₃O₄ core shell nanocomposite for discriminatory organic transformation of CF dye under Hg-vapor reactor

In the present investigation the material Co₃O₄ nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation method, while graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) was prepared by direct heating of melamine. The nanocomposite g-C₃N₄-Co₃O₄ were prepared by stoichiometric mixing and direct heating in porcelain boat followed by calcination. The prepared nanomaterials were characterized by various techniques. These both materials were characterized by XRD to get structural parameters and to confirm the average particle size of prepared nanomaterial. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was carried out to get surface characteristics of prepared materials. The energy dispersive spectroscopy was conducted to get elemental composition prepared material Co₃O₄ and g-C₃N₄-Co₃O₄. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was conducted to get lattice information of prepared material. While magnetic properties of both the material were investigated by means of vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), since cobalt oxide is a ferromagnetic material. The surface area was confirmed from Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) study. The g-C₃N₄-Co₃O₄ nanocomposite has found enhanced surface area of 78.48 m²/g in comparison to the sole Co₃O₄ nanomaterial (55.23 m²/g). Both these prepared materials were utilized in photocatlytic degradation of Carbol Fuchsin (CF) dye. The various parameters related to optimization of photocatlytic degradation of dyes were investigated in detail. The carbon nitride mediated cobalt oxide material is found to be very effective for degradation of CF dye and almost 97% of dye was successfully decomposed by the g-C₃N₄-Co₃O₄ nanocomposite. The reusability test confirms that the prepared g-C₃N₄-Co₃O₄ nanocomposite is very efficient in degradation of CF dye in multiple cycles with 110 minutes of contact time. (author)