Synthesis and Characterization of MoO3 for Photocatalytic Applications

• Published in: Journal of inorganic and organometallic polymers and materials Vol. 31; no. 5; pp. 2017 - 2029
• Main Authors: Al-Alotaibi, Amal L., Altamimi, N., Howsawi, E., Elsayed, Khaled A., Massoudi, Imen, Ramadan, A. E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.05.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aqueous solutions; Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Crystallization; Fourier transforms; Functional groups; Infrared analysis; Inorganic Chemistry; Light irradiation; Methylene blue; Molybdenum oxides; Molybdenum trioxide; Morphology; Organic Chemistry; Photocatalysis; Photodegradation; Pollutants; Polymer Sciences; Sol-gel processes; Stability analysis; Synthesis; Thermal stability; Thermogravimetric analysis; Transition metal oxides; Ultraviolet radiation; X-ray diffraction; Photocatalytic activity; ); Molybdenum trioxide (MoO; Wastewater treatment; Dye organic pollutants
• ISSN: 1574-1443; 1574-1451
• DOI: 10.1007/s10904-021-01939-w

The molybdenum trioxide (MoO 3 ) is the highly intriguing transition metal oxide with outstanding photocatalytic activity mainly with organic pollutants. In this study, two types of MoO 3 has been successfully synthesized by sol–gel (SG-MoO 3 ) and hydrothermal (HT-MoO 3 ) methods. The structure, morphology, and functional groups of the synthesized samples have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning, and transmission electron microscope (SEM and TEM), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. The thermal stability has been explored by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The obtained results show that both samples were crystallized in the orthorhombic structure. FTIR peaks for both samples are inconsistent with the XRD results. SEM images show that the prepared samples possess a belt-like shape; their size is ranging from 12.7 to 44.5 nm for SG-MoO 3 , and 2.5–7.7 nm for HT-MoO 3 . To assess the photocatalytic activity, the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) was studied. The effect of the exposure time, catalyst load, and wavelength of the excitation source was investigated. The results showed that the synthesized MoO 3 has a good photocatalytic activity to degrade the organic dye of MB in the aqueous solution. The removal rate of the MB with α-MoO 3 increases as the irradiation time increases. It is also found that the removal rate of MB increases with the increase of the catalyst load prepared by both methods. Furthermore, the photodegradation efficiency of the MB with MoO 3 induced by visible light irradiation is slightly higher than the samples irradiated by UV light at the same catalyst concentrations.