Sol-gel assisted β-cyclodextrin coated MoO₃-Fe₂O₃ nanocomposite for photodegradation of methylene blue dye

In this work, a series of β-Cyclodextrin coated MoO₃-Fe₂O₃ nanocomposites were synthesized by the sol-gel technique for degradation of methylene blue in presence of light from aqueous solutions. The prepared materials were analyzed by using powder XRD, FT-IR, UV-DRS, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, RAMAN, BET, and XPS techniques. The X-ray diffraction spectra of β-CD coated MoO₃-doped Fe₂O₃ confirms the orthorhombic phase of the Fe₂(MoO₄)₃ nanocomposite. The allowed indirect transition optical energy band gap of nanocomposites lies between 2.67 and 1.71 eV. The FE-SEM study revealed that nanoflakes change in the morphology of the nanocomposites sample, and it gives an estimated size below 30 nm. The 10 mgL⁻¹ methylene dye degrades efficiently around 91.62% within 1 h. with reaction condition of 15 mg 5% β-Cyclodextrin coated MoO₃-Fe₂O₃ catalyst, 6 pH, 10 mM concentration of H₂O₂, at room temperature under sunlight. The pure MoO₃ and Fe₂O₃ gives 38.21% and 77.10%, shows less activity compare with 5βMF catalyst. This study provides newer catalytic system which shows better photocatalytic degradation of dyes from industrial waste water.