Facile One-Pot Synthesis of Barium Copper Oxide Perovskite Nanophotocatalyst

Perovskite nanomaterials exhibit excellent optical, electrical, magnetic, and catalytic properties. They are highly valued because of their strong light absorption, tunable band gap and high chargecarrier mobility. Barium copper oxide (BCO) perovskite nanoparticles were synthesized by solgel method using minimal precursors like barium acetate and copper acetate in an aqueous medium. EDTA and ascorbic acid were used as the chelating agents. The physico-chemical characteristics of the synthesized perovskite nanoparticles were analyzed using advanced characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), UV-Visible spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). A broad UV-Visible absorption spectrum of BCO exhibits strong absorption in both the ultraviolet and visible regions, suggests enhanced light-harvesting ability and possible charge-transfer transitions between oxygen and copper ions. The photocatalytic activity of synthesized perovskite nanoparticles was evaluated by the degradation of 10 ppm Methylene Blue and Crystal Violet, synthetic textile dyes under natural sunlight (~22550 Lux). 0.05 g BCO perovskite nanoparticles exhibited photocatalytic activity nearly 70% toward the degradation of methylene blue and nearly 30% towards crystal violet under irradiation conditions within the experimental duration. The synthesized material is envisaged as a promising material for various advanced applications due to its simple, scalable, and facile synthesis method.