Avaliação do potencial fotocatalítico do molibdato de cério obtido pelo método EDTA/citrato na degradação do azul de metileno

Abstract

In this work, nanosized ceramic materials of scheelite family were synthesized, the cerium molybdate, through the combined complexing method EDTA-Citrate. It was conduced a 2³ factorial design with three central points to evaluate the influence of synthesis parameters pH (5, 7.5 and 10), heating rate (5, 7 and 10 ° C min-1) and calcination time (3, 4, and 5 hr), on phase formation, the crystallite size and the band gap of the material. The powders were characterized by TG/DSC, XRD, EDX, SEM and DRS-UV/Vis analysis. Through TG/DSC curve, it was observed the decomposition of organics until 600 °C, which this temperature was used in the calcination of the precursors. The XRD powders patterns were indexed to the crystallographic card JCPDS (Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards) nº 01-070-1382 of Scheelite type with monoclinic structure and space group C2/c. No secondary phases were identified. The XRD patterns were refined by Rietveld method, where the lattice parameters and unit cell volume were obtained. The EDX analysis (atomic %) show that there is maximum deviation of 15 and 10% on the theoretical and experimental atomic percentages of Ce and Mo, respectively. Through the SEM images, it was observed that the powders are formed by particles agglomerations of heterogeneous format and size, forming a porous material. The crystallite size study was done based on the interpretation of data from the XRD patterns. It was used the Halder-Wagner-Langford (HWL) and Scherrer methods, revealing average size of crystallites ranging between 11.67 and 32.75 nm. The optical properties of the nanoparticles were evaluated using the DRS-UV/Vis analysis whereby the optical band gap were measured ranging from 2.33 to 2.43 eV, classifying the material as a semiconductor with potential for photocatalytic applications using visible light as the radiation source. The synthesis method used was efficient for the production of a crystalline, nanosized and single phase material. It was observed that the synthesis performed at pH 5, heating rate of 5 °C min-1, and calcination time of 3hr were more suitable for the production of materials with the desired characteristics of crystallite size and band gap. Photocatalysis tests indicated that the synthesized material has a high potential for dye adsorption at pH 2, achieving a removal of nearly 95% of the dye in 30 minutes of contact, without light irradiation. The study of the effect of catalyst concentration indicated that the decrease of concentration of cerium molybdate to 0,125 g.L-1 increased dye removal potential to 99% in 3 hours of reaction. It was also observed through the photocatalytic tests that the decrease in concentration of the dye occurred by methylene blue adsorption on the material surface without degradation of organic matter, within the experimental conditions. The adsorption kinetics results indicated that the adsorption of Methylene Blue on cerium molybdate particles can be described by the pseudo second-order model for the conditions studied in this work.