Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange Using Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Using Lotus Seeds

In this study, the iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesised by green synthesis technique using lotus seed extract.The phytoconstituents present in the seed extract play a significant role in the fabrication of nanoparticles and acts as a stabilizing, reducing and capping agent.The prepared iron oxide nanoparticles were analysed using various techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Energy dispersive Xray, and UV-Visible spectroscopy techniques.XRD result reveals that the average crystallite size was 45.1 nm and the crystallite shape was face -centred cubic in structure.The band gap energy of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles was calculated to be 2.74 eV from UV-Visible analysis.The dye was determined using iron oxide nanoparticles.The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of methyl orange was achieved about 93.5 % in the conditions of 50 ml of 100 mg/L dye concentration, pH = 7.0, 10 mg/ml α-Fe2O3 and reaction time 120 minutes.The results of this study highlights that the nanomaterials prepared through green route have great importance in dye degradation applications.