Photocatalytic degradation of bromophenol blue in aqueous medium using chitosan conjugated magnetic nanoparticles

Three different chitosan conjugated magnetic nanoparticles (CCMN) of Co, Ni and Fe were prepared using co-precipitation method. The prepared CCMN were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Xray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopic techniques. The SEM results showed a smooth surface morphology with almost uniform particle size and irregular shape structure for all CCMN. The XRD study revealed the crystalline structure in case of Co-CCMN and Ni-CCMN, while amorphous nature of Fe-CCMN was observed. The particle size of the prepared CCMN was found to be < 95 nm, as confirmed from SEM and XRD analyses. Similarly, FT-IR analysis showed the incorporation and conjugation of Co, Ni and Fe magnetic nanoparticles into the chitosan polymer matrix. The point of zero charge (PZC) was found to be 7.41 for Co-CCMN and Ni-CCMN and 7.70 for Fe-CCMN. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared CCMN was investigated under UV light irradiation (254 nm and 15 W) in the aqueous medium using bromophenol blue (BPB). The photocatalytic process was monitored by UV-visible spectrophotometer for different irradiation times (0 to 10 h). The results showed that all the prepared CCMN displayed good to excellent photocatalytic property where the highest degradation was exhibited by Fe-CCMN (94.5%), followed by Co-CCMN (85.1%) and Ni-CCMN (83.0%). The prepared catalysts were recycled and reused, maintaining good photocatalytic activity for four consecutive batches.