Green Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity of New Photocatalyst SrCo2O4 Under Visible Light Irradiation

In order to reduce the enormous costs of photocatalytic processes, the development of new photocatalysts sensitive to visible light constitutes a promising strategy to boost the efficiency of this method in water treatment. In this paper, strontium cobaltite nanoparticles (SrCo2O4 NPs) was shaped by simple, ecological and economical method using cobalt and strontium nitrates as precursor and freshly isolated chicken egg white as capping agents. The crystalline product SrCo2O4 NPs was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and ultraviolet-visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy studies. The SrCo2O4-catalyzed Congo red (RC) degradation under visible light is investigated. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the sample was indeed crystallized in the cubic spinel structure (space group Fd3m). The average size of the nanoparticles was estimated to be ~28 nm. The FT-IR spectrum shows two bands at 620 cm−1 and 573 cm−1, which are characteristic of the spinel strontium cobaltite crystalline structure. The two optical band gap energy of synthesised photocatalyst estimated from UV-Visible spectrum are 2.07 and 3,48 eV. The developed photocatalyst exhibits significant photocatalytic degradation of congo red in acidic medium with 97% of the dye mineralized after 5 h.