An environmental approach for the photodegradation of toxic pollutants from wastewater using silver nanoparticles decorated titania-reduced graphene oxide

Abstract

Light-induced demineralization of organic pollutants is a recent development in the field of waste treatment. The present study focuses on TiO2-rGO-Ag hybrid nanocomposite through a two-step simultaneous synthesis pathway. The methods primarily involving facile solvothermal treatment (TiO2-rGO nanocomposite) in a water-ethanol mixture, followed by microwave irradiation method for deposition of silver (Ag) nanoparticles over the Binary nanocomposite synthesized. The resulting hybrid photocatalyst was well, and in-detail characterized using analytical techniques such as High-Resolution X-ray Diffractometer (HR-XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM/HR-TEM), High-Resolution Scanning Electron Microscopy (HR-SEM), Fourier-Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX), Raman Spectroscopy, Solid-State UV–Vis Spectroscopy and X-Ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The nanomaterial was examined to determine photocatalytic property by conducting a photodegradation experiment of an aqueous solution of Methylene Blue (MB) dye and monitoring the changes. The photocatalytic efficiency of the nano-hybrid synthesized was also analyzed in detail for the degradation of compounds that active components of petrochemical pollutants such as Benzene, Toluene, and Phenol the Visible region of radiation in a photochemical reactor under ambient reaction conditions. The set of experiments suggested that the photocatalytic efficiency of ternary nanocomposite synthesized was quite noticeable. The variation in the catalyst's photoactivity with the change in the functional group was monitored, and the rate of reaction has been correlated with attached substituents.