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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Chem.
Sec. Inorganic Pollutants
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvc.2024.1323752

Phytoextract-Assisted Synthesis of Fe2O3/MgO Nanocomposites for Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of Gentian Violate

Provisionally accepted
Haileeysus Tedla Tiruneh Haileeysus Tedla Tiruneh 1,2*Mahendra Goddati Mahendra Goddati 3Eshetu Bekele Wondemagegnehu Eshetu Bekele Wondemagegnehu 1*Lemma Teshome Tufa Lemma Teshome Tufa 1Andualem Mekonnen Andualem Mekonnen 4*Jaebeom Lee Jaebeom Lee 3*
  • 1 Adama Science and Technology University, Adama, Ethiopia
  • 2 Kotebe University of Education, Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • 3 Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
  • 4 Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Organic-based pollutants are extensively released from various industries, and they are potentially harming the environment and human health. Photocatalysis is regarded as one of the most promising techniques for degrading organic contaminants from wastewater. Therefore, in this study iron oxide-based nanocomposite was synthesized by an emerging green and sustainable method using Ethiopian endemic plant extract, Echinops kebericho M. as a capping and stabilizing agent. The phytoextract-assisted synthesized nanoparticles (NPs) α-Fe2O3 and nanocomposites (NCs) α-Fe2O3/MgO calcinated at a temperature of 400 °C were characterized and taken for their photocatalytic activities towards gentian violate dye (GV) degradation using Ultraviolet-Visible Spectroscopy (UV-Vis) at optimized catalyst dose, initial GV concentration, pH and time conditions. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis result revealed that the mean crystal size of α-Fe2O3 and α-Fe2O3/MgO is 11.2 nm and 15.4 nm, respectively. Characterization results of scanning electron microscope coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) clearly showed the successful deposition of MgO on α-Fe2O3. The maximum degradation of GV, 96.2% was observed by using α-Fe2O3/MgO after 60 min under visible light irradiation. Thus, synthesized NCs were shown better GV degradation efficiency in a shorter time as compared to the previously reported nanomaterials.The results revealed photocatalytic degradation using endemic plant extract-assisted synthesized NCs, α-Fe2O3/MgO is considered as a greener, simple and more efficient method for the removal of organic dyes.

    Keywords: photocatalyst, nanocomposite, Gentian violate, degradation, Green synthesis

    Received: 18 Oct 2023; Accepted: 11 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tiruneh, Goddati, Wondemagegnehu, Tufa, Mekonnen and Lee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Haileeysus Tedla Tiruneh, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama, Ethiopia
    Eshetu Bekele Wondemagegnehu, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama, Ethiopia
    Andualem Mekonnen, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
    Jaebeom Lee, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 305-764, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.