Fabrication and characterization of Fe@MoPO nanoparticles: Ion exchange behavior and photocatalytic activity against malachite green

Iron molybdophosphate (FeMoPO) nanoparticles have been fabricated using simple co-precipitation method. The nanoparticles showed promising ion exchange nature with ion exchange capacity of 1 meq g(-1). The synthesis on nanoparticles has been ascertained by characterizing the material using various techniques including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). To investigate the ion exchange behavior of FeMoPO nanoparticles its physicochemical properties has been studied in detail such as thermal stability, pH titrations, and elution behavior. FeMoPO nanoparticles have been explored as potential candidature for photocatalytic remediation of malachite green (MG) dye from aqueous system. It has been observed that FeMoPO nanoparticles efficiently photodegraded 77% of hazardous MG dye in 5 h of photo-exposure. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.