An Eco-friendly Synthesis of V2O5 Nanoparticles and Their Catalytic Activity for the Degradation of 4-Nitrophrnol

Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) nanoparticles were synthesized using green, facile and cheap method using cotton fibres employed as an effective catalytic degradation material for hazards chemical materials. The synthesized nanoparticles have been characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD showed crystalline orthorhombic structure of V2O5. The TEM micrographs showed spherical shape in a nanoscale range had average distribution of the diameter equal to 19.21nm and their standard deviation equal to 3.57nm. The UV-Vis study showed absorption peaks at 234, 265, and 317nm which confirmed the formation of V2O5 structure. The energy band gap was calculated using Tauc equation. The catalytic activity performance of as-prepared sample was studied for catalytic degradation 4-nitrophenol. The catalytic degradation study showed that the reaction was first order reaction as it has been concluded from the linear regression. The prepared samples showed that 4-nitrophenol is converted completely to 4-aminophenol within 18min.