Chlorophyll-based photocatalysts and their evaluations for methyl orange photoreduction

Immobilization of chlorophyll on different functionalized mesoporous materials has been attempted. The replacement of butanediol with monoethanol amine has resulted in increase in chlorophyll loading by a factor of two. The maximum immobilization of chlorophyll was on MCM-41 functionalized with monoethanolamine MCM-41/MEA/Chl) as compared to other mesoporous materials. This material has been characterized using XRD, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX) and fluorescence spectroscopy. The photocatalytic reduction of methyl orange (MO) was studied using MCM-41/MEA/Chl as photocatalyst under the visible light. The photocatalytic reduction of MO was 0.396 mg/g of MCM-41/MEA/Chl photocatalyst as compared to 0.508 mg/g of TiO2 for that of Degussa P-25 photocatalyst. The effect of various operating parameters like catalyst loading, initial concentration and intensity of light has also been studied. Photocatalytic property of chlorophyll-based photocatalytic material indicates that chlorophyll acts as a reaction center, which absorbs visible light and generates electron, which is transferred to different electron acceptors reducing MO into derivative of hydrazine.