Preparation of cobalt substituted zinc aluminium chromite: photocatalytic properties and Suzuki cross coupling reaction

A series of cobalt substituted zinc aluminium chromite nanoparticles were synthesized by simple, cost effective sol–gel auto-combustion method. The synthesized samples were characterized by different sophisticated techniques. The thermal properties of chromite nanoparticles were evaluated using thermogravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals the formation of single cubic spinel phase with an average crystallite size 25 nm. Morphological studies were carried out by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The chemical compositions of chromites have been examined by energy dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy technique which reveals the purity of the prepared samples. The photocatalytic performance of the synthesized material was studied towards decomposition of aqueous Rhodamine B dye solution. We systematically investigated the effect of various parameters such as irradiation time of UV light, palladium doping and kinetic parameters of photocatalysis with chromites. The catalytic performance of the samples was studied for the two-component coupling reaction of aryl halide and phenyl boronic acid. The effects of solvent, temperature, and palladium loading on the material were also discussed.