degradation of some dyes using nanosized cecuo3 photocatalyst: synthesis and characterization

cecuo3 nanoparticles with diameter 4.36 nm was synthesized by a fast and simplemicrowave method using cerric sulphate tetra hydrate and copper sulphate pentahydrate asstarting reagents. cecuo3 was synthesized under microwave heating for 6 min without calciningsteps. the synthesized products were characterized by x-ray powder diffraction (xrd) andscanning electron microscopy (sem) and the photocatalytic behaviour of nanosized cecuo3 wasalso studied spectrophotometrically through decolorization of yellowish orange and fast greendyes, a prompt water pollutant from textile industries. the effect of variation of differentparameters i.e. ph, amount of cecuo3, concentration of dye and light intensity was observed onthe rate of photocatalytic bleaching. a tentative mechanism for the photocatalytic bleaching ofdyes has been proposed.