Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye over Copper(II) Complex Nanoparticle Catalyst.

Abstract—A novel copper(II) complex nanoparticles catalyst was synthesized via precipitation and calcination. The catalyst was applied for the degradation of methylene blue under UV light irradiation. The catalyst was characterized for its physicochemical and structural properties by XRD, SEM, TEM and FT-IR spectroscopic techniques. XRD studies revealed that the particles were monoclinic single phase crystalline structure, the morphology of the nanostructure was confirmed by SEM while the TEM studies revealed that the particles were FCC. FTIR spectra showed the presence of diverse vibrational functional groups. Photolysis of the methylene blue dye indicates no degradation after 1 hour reaction, while the addition of the copper(II) complex nanoparticles catalyst resulted in the decolouration of the dye by ~94%. The efficiency of the catalyst was attributed to the nanoparticle’s morphology.