Abstract
Due to their broad applications in various industrial activities, and their well-known negative impacts on the aquatic environment, organic dyes have been continuously identified as serious threat to the quality of ecosystems. The photocatalytic degradation process in aqueous solutions has emerged as an efficient and reliable approach for the removal of organic dyes. MXenes, a new class of two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, possess unique chemical composition, surface functionalities, and physicochemical properties. Such characteristics enable MXenes to act as efficient catalysts or cocatalysts to photodegrade organic molecules. This work explores the application of Ti3C2Tx MXene decorated with silver and palladium nanoparticles, using a simple hydrothermal treatment method, for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB). The chemical composition of these photocatalysts, as well as their structural properties and morphology, was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The photocatalytic degradation abilities of the pristine MXene and the synthesized MXene composites were investigated under ultraviolet and solar light irradiation. A significant improvement in the photocatalytic performances was observed for all oxidized MXene composites when compared to pristine MXene, with a superior degradation efficiency achieved for AgNPs/TiO2/Ti3C2Tx. This work broadens the application range of oxidized MXene composites, providing an alternative material for degrading organics dyes and wastewater treatment applications.
Highlights
Synthetic dyes are being used extensively in various industries such as textile, paper, tannery, food, and cosmetic industries.These dyes comprise a principal component of the organic content of effluents produced from such industries
The degradation efficiency of methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) by the prepared AgNPs/TiO2/Ti3C2Tx and the pseudo-first-order rate constants were compared with the performance of some MXenes, graphene, activated carbon, and metal oxide composite photocatalysts reported in the literature
This work has demonstrated a facile one-pot hydrothermal method to prepare oxidized MXene composites decorated with transition-metal nanoparticles (TiO2/Ti3C2Tx, AgNPs/TiO2/ Ti3C2Tx, and PdNPs/TiO2/Ti3C2Tx)
Summary
Synthetic dyes are being used extensively in various industries such as textile, paper, tannery, food, and cosmetic industries. Several TiO2-based nanocomposites, such as ZnO/TiO2, Fe2O3/TiO2, and organic and nonorganic carbon-based nanomaterials/TiO2, have been explored for the degradation of organic pollutants.[9] In particular, TiO2-based nanocomposites with carbon-based materials (e.g., MXene, graphene, and carbon nanotubes) have shown improved photoactivity compared with TiO2 alone.[10] Among the carbon-based nanomaterials, MXene, a novel family of twodimensional (2D) transition-metal carbides, nitrides, or carbonitrides, has been the subject of several research efforts due to its unique properties including high conductivity, high structural/chemical stability, and abundant hydrophilic functional groups (such as −OH, −O, and −F) on its surface.[11−14] These advantages make MXene an attractive platform for preparing composites in photocatalytic systems.[13] In particular, titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx) contains a large proportion of Ti, which can undergo surface oxidation Ti3C2Tx.[15−18] For instance, Shahzad et to al. The most performing photocatalyst has been successfully adopted on a real wastewater sample by monitoring the variation of the total organic carbon (TOC)
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