Electrochemical synthesis and efficient photocatalytic degradation of azo dye alizarin yellow R by Cu/CuO nanorods under visible LED light irradiation using experimental design methodology

Present work is devoted to synthesis of Cu/CuO nanorods (NRs) by electrochemical method which recognized by various techniques such as SEM, EDS, XRD, Ft-IR and DRS. This nano-structure was used for photo-degradation of alizarin yellow R (AY) and correlation among response to variables as main and interactions optiniized by central composite design (CCD) combined with response surface methodology (RSM). The optimum conditions for achievement of high AY photo-degradation by Cu/CuO-NRs photocatalyst was 5.2, 77 min, 10 (mg/L) and 0.012 g correspond to the pH, LED irradiation time, initial AY concentration and photocatalyst mass, respectively. At the optimum conditions, the photocatalytic degradation percentages of AY with desirability of 0.97 was 96.47% and corresponding experimental data well fitted by Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) model (quasi first-order kinetic model). The photocatalytic reaction rate constant (k(obs)), L-H rate constants (k(r)) and L-H adsorption constants (K-A) for Cu/CuO-NRs were 0.024 min(-1), 12.64 mg.min(-1).L. and 8.02e(-4) L.mg(-1), respectively. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd.