Investigation on ammonia-free scalable cobalt-doped hexagonal boron nitride for environmental remediation

Annie Vinsla, J. V.; Vinosha, P. Annie; Vijayalakshmi, S.; Xavier, Belina; Muthukrishnaraj, A.; Ayyar, Manikandan; Henini, Mohamed

Abstract

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanocrystals are of greater importance for wastewater remediation, and synthesizing these h-BN nanocrystals with high surface area adds significance. Hence a facile and economically viable hydrothermal technique was adopted to synthesize an ammonia-free nanocrystals using a nitrogen-rich organic compound. In this h-BN nanocrystals, cobalt (Co) was incorporated with varying weight% in order to further enhance the performance rate of the as-synthesized nanocrystals. Furthermore, the as-synthesized material was investigated to analyse various properties including structural, optical, elemental, functional and morphological. For analysing the structural property X-Ray diffraction technique was used which revealed the hexagonal phase of as-synthesized BN whereas for the functional property Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopic study was performed which showed strong vibrations for B–N. In case of the optical property analysis, UV–Visible spectroscopic analysis was performed which depicted the decrease in bandgap from 5.12 to 2.93 eV and exhibited a redshift with respect to increase in dopant concentration. Elemental composition and oxidation states of the elements were investigated through X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and the peak positioned at 193.9 eV exhibited the presence of B–N bond. In addition, pristine h-BN and Co-doped h-BN nanocrystals were assessed for degrading the Methylene blue (MB) dye and 10% Co-doped h-BN nanocrystals. Interestingly, 10 wt% doped h-BN nanomaterial exhibited superior catalytic activity and caused a 99.4% degradation of the MB dye in just 9 min. This percentage increase of degradation is probably due to an enhancement of existing adsorption and catalytic sites on photocatalysts.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 2, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Sep 22, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-09
• Deposit Date: Sep 25, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 23, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
• Print ISSN: 0957-4522
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-482X
• Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 27
• Article Number: 1844
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-11255-3
• Keywords: Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Condensed Matter Physics; Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics; Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/25374547
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10854-023-11255-3