The composite for the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange under visible light contains Co3O4 generated from ZIF-67 with CuO/MXene.

In the present research, the CuO/Co3O4NPs/PC/MXene nanostructure was prepared with a combination of annealed ZIF-67 and etched MXene (PC is porous carbon). Its structure, crystallinity, and morphology were identified by FTIR, XRD, and FE-SEM methods. After confirming the successful synthesis of the nanostructure, it was used in the photocatalytic degradation of the methyl orange (MO) pollutant under visible light irradiation. The effect of different parameters on the photo-degradation efficiency was studied to achieve the best efficiency. The results show a degradation efficiency of 99.6% for MO in optimal conditions, including the presence of 0.15 g/L of catalyst, an initial concentration of 14 mg/L, and a pH of 7 during 50 min. The rate of photocatalytic degradation of MO is based on the pseudo-first-order kinetic law, which was determined by the linear correlation constant greater than 0.9843 and the kinetic constant 0.14 min−1 by CuO/Co3O4NPs/PC/MXene nanostructure. Also, the photocatalytic behaviour of the three-component nanostructure consisting of CuO/Co3O4NPs/PC-MXene was better than that of Cu/Co/PC/MXene and Cu/ZIF-67/MXene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]