Normal spinel CdCr2O4 and CdCr2O4/Ag nanocomposite as novel photocatalysts, for degradation of water contaminates

In this work CdCr2O4 and CdCr2O4/Ag nanostructures were synthesized by a new simple route with chrome nitrate and cadmium nitrate as chromium and cadmium source. N,N'-(bis(salicylidene)-ethylene-1,2-diamine) as new capping agent in the presence of triethylenetetramine (TETA) as alkaline agent were used to fabricate nanostructured cadmium chromite for the first time. The as-prepared nanoparticles CdCr2O4 and CdCr2O4/Ag were characterized by UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results indicated that grain size and morphology of CdCr2O4 changes by change preparation factors such as kind of capping agent, alkaline agent and temperature. Up to now, this is first effort on the evaluation of photocatalytic efficiency of the cadmium chromite nano particles (CdCr2O4) and CdCr2O4/Ag in various conditions. In order to investing of photocatalytic properties of the nanoparticles, the effect of various factors such as various type of pollutant, grain size and morphology of cadmium chromite nanostructures, concentration of dyes and pH on photocatalytic behavior of products were studied.