Role of EDTA capped cobalt oxide nanomaterial in photocatalytic degradation of dyes

Dyes released from textile, paint, and various other industries in wastewater have posed long term environmental damage. Functional nano­materials provide a hope and opportunities to treat these effluent wastes in a rapid and efficient way due to their large surface area to volume ratios. Synthesis of 2,2',2'',2'''-(Ethane-1,2-diyldinitrilo)tetraacetic acid (EDTA) cap­ped cobalt oxide nanomaterial as a photocatalyst has been investigated and utilized for the rapid and efficient removal of malachite green (MG) and crystal violet (CV) dyes. The morphological, structural, optical, chemical and thermal properties of the synthesized nanomaterial were investigated using different characterization tools such as Scanning electron microscopy(SEM), Transmis­sion electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Ultra violet visible (UV-Vis), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and Thermo­gra­vimetric analysis (TGA) etc . The prepared EDTA capped Cobalt oxide nanomaterials display better photocatalytic degradation, 56.3 % for MG and 37.9 % for CV in comparison to the pure Cobalt oxide, 47.7 and 27.6 %, respectively under visible light illumination. The kinetics study followed the pseudo-first order kinetic model and Freundlich adsorption isotherm model. The incremental photodegradation of these two dyes was attributed by mor­phology of the nanomaterial which favour effective electron/hole separation.