Lanthanum Chromium Oxide Catalyst: Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity Shown in Azure-B

Abstract

The photo-catalytic activity of number of semiconducting materials has been established and photo catalysis has been predicted as a promising technology for waste water treatment. Ternary oxides have been used as effective photocatalysts for carrying out number of chemical reactions. In the present work, lanthanum chromium oxide catalyst has been synthesized using co-precipitation method and specific heating cycles. Synthesized catalyst was characterized using x-ray diffraction patterns. Photocatalytic bleaching of azure-B dye was observed by spectrophotometric method using above catalyst and progress of the reaction was monitored spectrophotometrically. The effect of variation of different parameters like concentration of azure-B, pH, amount of semiconductor and light intensity was observed on the rate of photocatalytic bleaching. A tentative mechanism for the photocatalytic bleaching of azure-B has been proposed.