Ameliorative photocatalytic dye degradation of hydrothermally synthesized bimetallic Ag-Sn hybrid nanocomposite treated upon domestic wastewater under visible light irradiation

Abstract

Industrial and textile dyes are the major source of water pollutants in the Coimbatore Districts of Tamil Nadu, India. The highly stable organic dyes from these industries are being discharged untreated into neighboring rivers, lakes, and ponds. Thus, the present study mainly focused on the preparation of bimetallic nanocomposite (Ag-Sn) through Free-facile Teflon autoclave methodology and their subsequent stimulation has given to the photocatalyst by visible light irradiation. This visible light stimulates and irradiates the photocatalysts from steady state to the excited state and might help in absorption of the nanosized dye materials and organic matter. The nanocomposite was characterized using UV, FTIR, Zeta-sizer, XRD and FE-SEM. These parameters exhibited significant lattice structures with an average size of 127.6 nm. Further the nanocomposite treated samples were tested for water quality parameters like TDS, BOD, COD, heavy metals, sedimentation rate and bacterial population. Likewise, the samples irradiated with visible light for photocatalytic activity exhibited a significant intensity of C/C0 at 0.42 and 0.28. The treated water used for green gram seedling assay exhibited significant growth. Scavengers from Ag-Sn bimetallic nanocomposite plays the major role in dye degradation. The results clearly suggest that Ag-Sn bimetallic nanocomposite can be used for wastewater treatment and the subsequent treated water can be utilized for agriculture purposes.