Preparation and characterization of hybrid material (C2N2H10)0.5CoPO4 application to photocatalysis

Abstract

This work is devoted to the hydrothermal synthesis at 150 °C of an organic–inorganic hybrid material (C₂N₂H₁₀)_0.5CoPO₄ (CoPO-ED) in the presence of cobalt as metal and ethylene diamine as organic matter. Physical characterizations namely X-Ray diffraction (XRD), coupled SEM/EDX analysis, optical microscopy, TG/DTG and chemical analyses, UV–Visible diffuse reflectance, FTIR / Raman spectroscopies and mass spectrometry were undertaken. The SEM image and optical microscopy allows observing both the morphology and colour. The XRD pattern confirms the single phase CoPO-ED, its crystallinity and purity. The optical study reveals a direct (1.81 eV) and indirect (1.72 eV) transitions due to the presence of the Jahn-Teller ion Co²⁺ tetrahedrally coordinated. The Raman spectrum shows the existence of organic bonds (CC, CH and CN) and the tetrahedral site of cobalt, thus confirming the structure of CoPO-ED while the mass spectrometry allows elucidating the organic fragments. The title compound has been tested for the first time in photocatalysis through the dyes degradation. For this, we have selected two dyes namely the cationic Methyl Violet (MV) and anionic Methyl Orange (MO), the results show an elimination of 50 and 40 % respectively under visible light after 5 h of irradiation.