Green Oxidative Degradation of Methyl Orange with Copper(II) Schiff Base Complexes as Photo-Fenton-Like Catalysts

Two copper(II) complexes, namely [Cu(HL)Cl] (1) and [Cu(HL)Br](2), where HL is the multidentate Schiffbase N-[(2-oxy-acetate)benzyl]-2-aminothanol, were synthesized and fully characterized. The Cu-II ions in 1 and 2 are pentacoordinate and the coordination arrangement is best described as distorted square-pyramidal. The degradation of methyl orange (MO) was investigated using 1 and 2 as homogeneous photo-Fenton-like catalysts. 1 and 2 exhibited similar catalytic activity at neutral pH. The results suggest that they have advantages on catalyzing efficient degradation of organic dye through photo-Fenton-like reaction.