Preparation of cobalt molybdate nanoparticles; Taguchi optimization and photocatalytic oxidation of Reactive Black 8 dye

•CoMoO4 nanoparticles have been prepared by precipitation and microemulsion.•The product has high purity, fine particle size, and high surface area.•The microemulsion method produced finer particles with higher surface area.•The photocatalytic activity was studied under UV irradiation.

In this study, cobalt molybdate (CoMoO4) nanoparticles were synthesized by precipitation and microemulsion methods. The effective parameters for these two methods were determined and optimized using Taguchi design method. The obtained nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, DLLS and BET analysis. By comparing the results of the two methods, it was found that the microemulsion procedure produces finer particles (11.7 nm) with higher specific surface area than that obtained by precipitation method. Moreover, the CoMoO4 nanoparticles were successfully applied to eliminate Reactive Black (RB) 8 dye from aqueous solution with decolorization efficiency of 91.47%.

Graphical abstractCoMoO4 nanoparticles were prepared by two methods: microemulsion and precipitation. By the use of Taguchi as a method for experimental design the effective factors were determined and optimized. The resulting data indicated that the microemulsion procedure produces finer particles with higher surface area. Also, photocatalytic oxidation of RB 8 dye in aqueous solution with CoMoO4 nanoparticles was investigated.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide