Paper Title
Study of Photoluminescence and Photocatalytic Properties of Hkust-1 Synthesized by Microwave Method

Abstract
In this studyHKUST-1 was synthesized via microwave method. The as synthesised HKUST-1was were characterized by various characterization techniques including FTIR, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Uv-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (Uv-vis DRS) and photoluminescence (PL) technique. The XRD and FTIR results indicate that diffraction patterns are in accordance with the previous reports confirming the successful synthesis of HKUST-1. THE results of SEM and TEM analysis clearly suggest the uniform cube morphology of as synthesized samples with average diameter of about 20 μm. Moreover, the XRD diffraction pattern and SAED (selected area electron diffraction pattern) results clearly suggest that the synthesized samples are crystalline in nature. The absorption edge of HKUST-1 was found around 400 nm suggesting that the synthesized sample absorb towards shorter wavelengths. HKUST-1 was characterized with photoluminescence studies to understand the charge transfer properties of sample. It was found that the intensity of PL peak is very weak which confirms the efficient electronhole separation in HKUST-1. The synthesized sample of HKUST-1 was implied for photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B(RhB)aqueous solution under Uv-vis light from mercury-xenon arc lamp. It was found that HKUST-1 degraded 80% of dye in 100 min. The superior photocatalytic ability was attributed to the efficient electron-hole separation as confirmed by PL analysis also. Keywords - HKUST-1, microwave method, photocatalytic, photoluminescence, Rhodamine B UV-vis light.