Phthalhydrazide nanoparticles as new highly reusable organic photocatalyst in the photodegradation of organic and inorganic contaminants

Phthalhydrazide nanoparticles are introduced as a new, efficient, stable and reusable organic photocatalyst for the photodegradation of a range of azo dyes, including methyl orange, methyl red, congo red and yellow titan, 4‐nitrophenol and permanganate as important organic and inorganic contaminants. Various experimental parameters including pH, photocatalyst dose, dye concentration and illumination time were investigated for methyl orange as a model substrate. The results revealed high degradation efficacy, up to 93.6%, for methyl orange in 20 min. Moreover, a preliminary kinetic study along with a proposed photodegradation mechanism is included in this study. Mechanistic investigations showed that phthalhydrazide behaved as a photoreduction catalyst. With the addition of Cl − ion, as a hole scavenger, photodegradation efficacy for methyl orange was improved. Results showed that phthalhydrazide nanoparticles behaved better than commercial bulk phthalhydrazide and both performed as successful photocatalysts for photoreduction of the mentioned organic and inorganic compounds.