Enhanced Photocatlytic Activity of two Dimensional Graphitic C3N4@Co3O4 Core Shell Nanocomposite for Discriminatory Organic Transformation under Hg-Vapor Reactor

In the present investigation the material Co3O4 nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation method, while graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) was prepared by direct heating of melamine. The nanocompositeg-C3N4- Co3O4were prepared by stoichiometric mixing and direct heating in porcelain boat followed by calcination. The prepared nanomaterials were characterized by various techniques. These both materials were characterized by XRD to get structural parameters and to confirm the average particle size of prepared nanomaterial. The scanning electron microscopy(SEM) was carried out to get surface characteristics of prepared materials. The energy dispersive spectroscopy was conducted to get elemental composition prepared material Co3O4and g-C3N4- Co3O4 .The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was conducted to get lattice information of prepared material. While magnetic properties of both the material were investigated by means of vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), since cobalt oxide is a ferromagnetic material. The surface area was confirmed from Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) study. The g-C3N4- Co3O4nanocomposite has found enhanced surface areaof 78.48 m2/g in comparison to the sole Co3O4nanomaterial (55.23 m2/g). Both these prepared materials were utilized in photocatlytic degradation of CarbolFuchsin (CF) dye. The various parameters related to optimization of photocatlytic degradation of dyes were investigated in detail. The carbon nitride mediated cobalt oxide material is found to be very effective for degradation of CF dye and almost 97% of dye was successfully decomposed by the g-C3N4- Co3O4nanocomposite. The reusability test confirms that the prepared g-C3N4- Co3O4nanocomposite is very efficient in degradation of CF dye in multiple cycles with 110 minutes of contact time.