Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of mixed calcium magnesium oxide (CaMgO2) nanoflakes for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

Indira Karuppusamy; Melvin S Samuel; E Selvarajan; Sabarathinam Shanmugam; Paskalis Sahaya Murphin Kumar; Kathirvel Brindhadevi; Arivalagan Pugazhendhi

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.09.112

Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of mixed calcium magnesium oxide (CaMgO₂) nanoflakes for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Feb 15:584:770-778. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.09.112. Epub 2020 Oct 6.

Authors

Indira Karuppusamy¹, Melvin S Samuel², E Selvarajan³, Sabarathinam Shanmugam⁴, Paskalis Sahaya Murphin Kumar⁵, Kathirvel Brindhadevi⁶, Arivalagan Pugazhendhi⁷

Affiliations

¹ Corrosion Science and Technology Division, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India.
² School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India.
³ Department of Genetic Engineering, School of Bioengineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, Chongqing University, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400044, China; Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China.
⁵ National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Ibaraki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan.
⁶ Institute of Research and Development, Duy Tan University, Da Nang 550000, Viet Nam. Electronic address: kathirvelbrindhadevi@duytan.edu.vn.
⁷ Innovative Green Product Synthesis and Renewable Environment Development Research Group, Faculty of Environment and Labour Safety, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. Electronic address: arivalagan.pugazhendhi@tdtu.edu.vn.

PMID: 33189317
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.09.112

Abstract

In the present study, mixed calcium magnesium oxide (CaMgO₂) nanoflakes were synthesized using an ultrasound-assisted co-precipitation method. The physicochemical, structural and functional properties and elemental composition of the nanoflakes had been characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-VIS spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, the photocatalytic actions of the nanoflakes were evaluated by the removal rates of methylene blue (MB) and p-nitrophenol (4-NP) under UV irradiation at room temperature. SEM-EDS studies revealed that the nanoflakes consisted of mixed oxide such as magnesium oxide (MgO) and calcium oxide (CaO) particles. The size of the nanoflakes was found to be in the range of 10-30 nm and the average size was 25 nm as confirmed by HR-TEM analysis. XRD revealed that the standard crystal size was calculated to be 25 nm. The synthesized nanoflakes had a strong photocatalytic activity for methylene blue (MB) and p-nitrophenol (4-NP) degradation in the presence of H₂O₂ under UV light irradiation within 60 min and 30 min, respectively. Hence, the present study proposes that the CaMgO₂ nanoflakes can be employed for the removal of dyes from wastewater.

Keywords: Co-precipitation; Dye degradation; Methylene blue; Mixed metal oxide; Nanoflakes; Ultrasound-assisted synthesis.