A green chemistry approach for synthesis of CaTiO3 Photocatalyst: its effects on degradation of methylene blue, phytotoxicity and microbial Study

Calcium titanate particles in the nanometer size regime have been successfully synthesized by mechanochemical method using green chemistry approach. In this work, the possibility of mechanochemical synthesis of CaTiO3 from CaO and TiO2 was investigated at 1000 OC for a period of 20 hours. Intensive mechanochemical grinding of powder containing CaO and TiO2 under optimal grinding conditions, resulted in synthesis of single phase CaTiO3. The structural and micro structural properties of CaTiO3 material was characterized by various analytical practices like FT-IR, UV-DRS, XRD, SEM and BET. The synthesized material was used for photodegradation of methylene blue dye with respect to various dye concentrations and catalyst amount. CaTiO3 treatment exhibited 93 % degradation. The effect of MB dye degradation products on wheat seed germination were also investigated. The degradation of MB dye removed the toxic effects. This is an evidence for removal of toxicity in degradation products. Antimicrobial activity shows that CaTiO3 photocatalyst was found to be non toxic to the environment.