Synthesis and characterization of a novel copper carboxylate complex and a copper complex-coated polyether sulfone membrane for efficient degradation of methylene blue dye under UV irradiation: the single crystal X-ray structure of the copper carboxylate complex

Abstract

Synthesis of a novel binuclear Cu(II) carboxylate complex under ambient laboratory conditions is presented. The complex exhibits a paddle wheel structure in which the axial positions are occupied by two copper atoms instead of two water molecules. The synthesized complex was characterized by single-crystal X-ray crystallography, FT-IR, X-ray diffraction, and UV-visible spectroscopy techniques. The thermal stability of the metal complex was studied by the thermogravimetric analysis study. The synthesized metal complex was employed for the synthesis of metal complex-coated polyether sulfone (PES) membranes which were characterized before and after filtration using the FESEM technique. The photocatalytic efficiency of the metal complex was studied for the degradation of methylene blue dye under UV irradiation in the presence of H₂O₂ and was compared with the photodegradation efficiency of the metal complex-coated polyether sulfone (PES) membrane.