Mechanochemical route for tetra amino zinc phthalocyanine embedded PANI sensitized Fe2O3 heteroarchitecture for photodegradation of dyes under the influence of low power LED light source

Abstract

In the present work, we demonstrate a facile, simple and effective solvent-free rapid mechanochemical approach for the synthesis of tetra amino zinc phthalocyanine engrained PANI sensitized Fe2O3 hybrid (TAZnPc-PANI@Fe2O3) photocatalyst. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Solid state diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer have been used to characterize the structure, size, morphology and optical properties of TAZnPc-PANI@Fe2O3 photocatalyst. Cationic methylene blue (MB) and anionic Eosin Y (EY) dyes were chosen as modular pollutants to investigate photodegradation competence of Fe2O3 alone and TAZnPc-PANI@Fe2O3 hybrid photocatalyst under the influence of the low power white LED (16 W) as visible light source. Influence of operational parameters such as catalyst loading, contact time, pH of the medium and reusability of the catalyst on the dye degradation are investigated. The obtained results established that photosensitization of Fe2O3 with tetra amino zinc phthalocyanine embedded PANI (TAZnPc-PANI) significantly enhanced the photocatalytic performance towards photodegradation of MB and EY dyes. The photodegradation of MB and EY under optimised conditions was found to be ∼95 % in 80 min.