Synthesis and characterization of mechanochemically synthesized cobalt oxide and evaluation of its catalytic performance for degradation of congo red dye in aqueous medium

Catalytic oxidation/degradation of azo dye congo red (CR) was investigated at room temperature using lab synthesized cobalt oxide by a facile solid phase mechanochemical method. The catalyst was characterized by various techniques including X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared (spectroscopy) (FT-IR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Surface area analysis. The catalyst showed excellent degradation ability in the presence of molecular oxygen and more than 85% of the dye was degraded in the first 10 minutes of the reaction at room temperature. It was observed that slight increase in the temperature enhances the degradation ability of the catalyst. The method of using cobalt oxide as catalyst shows many advantages including high degradation ratios, short reaction time, low cost; it may fit to deal with various other azo dyes in waste water on large scale.