Rutile TiO2/CoSe nanocomposite: An efficient photocatalyst for photodegradation of model organic dyes under visible light irradiation

Here we propose new type II semiconducting nanocomposite TiO2/CoSe for effective separation of the photoinduced charges, thus enhancing the visible light harvesting capability of TiO2.The formation of TiO2/CoSe nanocomposite is confirmed by XRD, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, XPS and BET characterization techniques. Remarkable results were obtained during photodegradation study of both Rhodamine B (99.86%) and methylene blue (97.85%) within just 90 min of visible light irradiation. The mechanistic investigation demonstrates that the Superoxide (O-2 center dot(-)) radicals are most reactive species participates in photocatalytic dye degradation. The synthesized photocatalyst has good reusability, it can be successfully reused for six batches of photocatalytic reactions. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.