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Sol–gel synthesis of TiO2 on Co3O4-coated sporopollenin exine microcapsules (SECs) and photocatalytic performance of new semiconductor heterojunction material

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Abstract

In this study, a new approach was developed to prepare mesoporous hybrid TiO2/Co3O4 coated on Juglans sporopollenin exine microcapsules (SECs). TiO2 was synthesized on Co3O4-coated SECs used as substrate, by sol–gel method. The obtained semiconductor/semiconductor hetero-junction hybrid materials were characterized with X-ray diffractometry (XRD), UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), particle size distribution, specific surface area, and zeta potential measurements. Photocatalytic performances of hybrid materials were tested for Reactive Black 5 dye under both UV and visible light. Equilibrium pH of the solution containing 10 mg/L Reactive Black 5 dye and 0.1% wt/v TiO2/Co3O4 was around 4.7. After irradiation in the solar box, more than 98% of the Reactive Black 5 was photocatalytically degraded within 60 min.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBİTAK, Project number is 218M267 and TÜBİTAK Project number is 219M166 and İnönü University BAP Project number is FDK-2019–1769).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Arts, İnönü University, 44280, Malatya, Turkey

    Hatice Çağlar Yılmaz & Sema Erdemoğlu

  2. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Arts, İnönü University, 44280, Malatya, Turkey

    Funda Ersoy Atalay

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Malatya Turgut Özal University, 44280, Malatya, Turkey

    Harun Kaya

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  1. Hatice Çağlar Yılmaz
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  2. Funda Ersoy Atalay
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  4. Sema Erdemoğlu
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Contributions

Sema Erdemoğlu: corresponding author; conceptualization, project administration, supervision, validation, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, writing—review and editing.

Hatice Çağlar Yılmaz: synthesis of the materials, photocatalytic experimental, methodology, data curation, analysis, writing—review and editing.

Funda Ersoy Atalay: project administration, synthesis of Co3O4-coated SECs, methodology, analysis.

Harun Kaya: synthesis of Co3O4-coated SECs, methodology, analysis.

All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sema Erdemoğlu.

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Yılmaz, H.Ç., Atalay, F.E., Kaya, H. et al. Sol–gel synthesis of TiO2 on Co3O4-coated sporopollenin exine microcapsules (SECs) and photocatalytic performance of new semiconductor heterojunction material. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 78620–78636 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21357-w

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