Facile large scale synthesis of CuCr2O4/CuO nanocomposite using MOF route for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue and tetracycline under visible light

MIL-101(Cr) template method has been employed successfully to synthesize CuCr2O4/CuO composite. The synthesized sample was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherm (BET) analysis, and UV vis- diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS). The photocatalytic efficiency of the nanocomposite was evaluated towards the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye and antibiotic tetracycline (TC) solution. The morphological studies confirmed that the CuO was uniformly dispersed on the CuCr2O4 matrix. The CuCr2O4/CuO nanocomposite showed high degradation efficiency of about 90% in the presence of H2O2 where the MB degradation reaction got completed in a mere 35 min and 95% TC got degraded within 120 min.