Abstract
The manganese-based magnetic photocatalyst was prepared using a facile sol-gel method and given microwave plasma treatment for 30 min. The photocatalyst was characterized for structural, magnetic, electrical and optical properties to check its suitability for photocatalytic degradation of methyl blue from wastewater. The plasma-treated photocatalyst exhibits more porous morphology than the untreated one. The crystallite size of untreated photocatalyst was calculated about 36 nm, which increased to 39 nm on plasma treatment. Similarly, the lattice parameter before and after plasma treatment was measured about 8.3552 angstrom and 8.4873 angstrom, respectively. The untreated photocatalyst had the band gap of 5.17 eV, which reduced to 4.98 eV on plasma treatment. The light absorption peak of the photocatalyst increased from 578 to 599 nm on plasma treatment. The plasma-treated and untreated photocatalysts showed 91% and 74% dye degradation efficiency, respectively. These catalysts retained 97% and 93% efficiency, respectively, after five cycles of dye degradation. The saturation magnetization was measured about 0.79 emu/g and 0.66 emu/g, respectively. The coercivity of untreated sample was measured about 0.3 kOe, which reduced to 0.1 kOe on plasma treatment.