Efficacy of Cobalt-Incorporated Mesoporous Silica towards Photodegradation of Azodyes and Its Kinetic Study for Advanced Application

Abstract

Along with MCM-41, cobalt-incorporated mesoporous silica (Co-MCM-41) has been created. Powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and nitrogen adsorption-desorption studies were used to describe the materials. It has been discovered that the Co-MCM-41 has less surface area (SBET, m2 g−1), pore volume (cc·g−1), and pore size (Å) than the MCM-41. The SEM-EDAX analysis has also unmistakably demonstrated the existence of the appropriate elements in the materials. The photoactivity was significantly impacted by the extremely distributed Co3+ species present on the MCM-41 structure. A theoretical loading of 3.5 wt% permitted an AO7 degradation percentage of about 70% for the samples that were simply treated with Co. Increased Co3+ inactive species, such as clusters or −Co2O3 nanoparticles, are present at higher loadings, but the photoactivity is not noticeably increased. By using the Kubelka-Munk function to the UV-Vis DRS results, it was discovered that the band gap (eV) in the Co-MCM-41 was also substantially smaller than in its parent template. The Alizarin Red S dye was successfully photodegraded employing the materials as photocatalysts, and pseudo-first order kinetics was carried out using the Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model. The necessary experimental setups were all optimised.