Synthesis of a novel MOF/CuWO4 heterostructure for efficient photocatalytic degradation and removal of water pollutants

A novel MOF based composite with CuWO4 noted as MOF/CuWO4 successfully prepared via a facile synthesis route. The as prepared MOF/CuWO4 composite was characterized with the aid of various characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF), photoluminescence (PL), Transmission Electron microscopy (TEM) and Brunner-Emmet-Teller (BET) model. The photocatalytic performance of the MOF/CuWO4 composite with different weight ratios have been evaluated for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and 4-nitrophenol as water pollution. Compared with the different types of composite system the MOF/CuWO4 composite with the weight ratio of (1:1) exhibited superior photocatalytic activity toward the degradation of methylene blue and 4-nitrophenol contaminants under LED light irradiation. Due to the MOF high surface area, efficient separation of electron-hole pairs can be observed. All of the obtained results illustrated that the MOF/CuWO4 composite acts as a highly efficient heterogeneous photocatalyst for the methylene blue and 4-nitrophenol photo degradation compared to pure MOF and CuWO4 structures.