Facile synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic activity of band gap engineered cobalt selenide nanoparticles

Abstract

Here we report the synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic studies of cobalt selenide nanoparticles. Synthesized cobalt selenide nanoparticles were characterized by using X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopic analysis, which revealed that the nanoparticles are crystalline in nature, circular and having particle size of 20–25 nm in diameter. Furthermore, thermogravimetric behavior (thermogravimetric analysis/differential thermal analysis), optical and photocatalytic activity of the cobalt selenide nanoparticles were also evaluated. Thermogravimetric results revealed that the cobalt and selenide are strongly interacting, which is also supported by the selective area energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopic analysis. We have applied the synthesized cobalt selenide nanoparticles for an efficient photocatalysis of rhodamine B under ultraviolet light illumination, which resulted in the production of chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen by the cobalt selenide nanoparticles. Based upon the present results, we conclude that the synthesized cobalt selenide nanoparticles are environmentally significant. Moreover, the energy band gap as computed by the Tauc formula was observed to be in the range of Eg= 1.8 eV.