Cationic surfactant assisted morphology of Ag@Cu, and their catalytic reductive degradation of Rhodamine B

Abstract

We describes the UV–visible spectroscopic and transmission electron microscopic evidence to the reactivity of Cu2+, and Ag+ towards hydrazine for the synthesis of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB, capped spherical hetero-structure and hexahedral Ag@Cu. The conventional techniques like, UV–visible, TEM, SEM, EDS, and FT-IR were used to the characterization. The catalytic reductive degradation of Rhodamine B (RB) by using Ag@Cu bimetallic nanoparticles as a catalyst has been reported for the first time in this study. The decrease in [RB] was monitored by UV–visible spectroscopy. The [Ag@Cu]=6.6×10−5moldm−3 exhibited remarkable catalytic activity towards [RB]=3.5×10−5moldm−3 in presence of [NaBH4]=1.3×10−3moldm−3, with a degradation efficiency of ca. 100% in 4min. The experimental data revealed that the removal of RB increased with increasing the [catalyst loading] and [NaBH4]. Apparent-first order rate constants, turnover frequency, activation parameters (Ea, ΔH#, and ΔS#) have been calculated and discussed. A possible mechanism for the de-colorization of RB has been proposed.