Enhancement of cyanide photocatalytic degradation using sol-gel ZnO sensitized with cobalt phthalocyanine

In this work, the photodegradation of cyanide in aqueous suspension was used to determine the photocatalytic activity of sol-gel prepared ZnO which was impregnated with the Co (II) phthalocyanine (CoPc), as sensitizer. The prepared catalyst was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersed Spectroscopy (EDS) detector, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Diffuse UV-Vis Reflectance spectroscopy. Specific surface area was calculated from nitrogen adsorption isotherm using BET method. Compared with commercial ZnO and TiO2 Degussa P25 photocatalysts, the sol-gel prepared ZnO catalyst sensitized with cobalt phthalocyanine showed the highest activities for degradation of cyanide in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation.