Photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange using Zn@[Fe(CN)5NO] complex under sunlight irradiation

The objective of the current study is the use of a zinc nitroprusside (Zn@[Fe(CN)(5)NO]) complex as a new photo-catalyst for the degradation of the methyl orange from aqueous solution. The zinc nitroprusside synthesized by a drop by drop method and characterized by different methods, such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The optical properties of this complex were studied by UV-visible spectrophotometer, and the optical band gap was found to be 1.51 eV. In another hand, the as-synthesized complex was applied for the methyl orange degradation under sunlight irradiation. Four main parameters were investigated, that is, the influence of the photo-catalyst dose (0.25 - 1.25) g.L-1, H2O2 concentration (0.048 - 2.38) x 10(-1 )mol.L-1, pH medium (2 - 9), and initial concentration of the dye (10 - 50) mg.L-1. At room temperature, the maximum degradation ratio was obtained at pH 2, using methyl orange concentration of 10 mg.L-1, hydrogen peroxide of 1.91 x 10(-1 )mol.L-1 and 0.5 g.L-1 of the catalyst dose. The obtained results show that the zinc nitroprusside has good photo-catalytic propriety for the photo-degradation of methyl orange.