Enhanced adsorption and degradation kinetics of methylene blue by Ag–Ag2S–CdS hybrid nanowires

Abstract

In this paper, silver nanowires (Ag NWs) were initially synthesized by the polyol synthesis method. A simple hybridization of silver sulfide (Ag2S) and silver was achieved by simply mixing as-prepared Ag NWs with different concentrations of Na2S aqueous solution (0.01 and 0.001 M). To study the properties of the nanomaterials, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and UV–Visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy were used. The ion exchange method was used to create Ag–Ag2S–CdS hybrid nanocatalysts. There has been no research further info on the degradation of methylene blue (MB) by an Ag– Ag2S–CdS nanocatalyst in the three environments (acid, neutral, alkaline). The MB dye was degraded for various minutes (min) in different pH degrees under the influence of sunlight using Ag–Ag2S–CdS. As a result of the experiments, the degradation efficiency of MB dye increased from 12.47 % to 57.02 % in the neutral, 40.58 %–80.08 % the in alkaline, and 91.87 %–97.92 % in the acid environment as time passed. The kinetics of the degradation process in each of the three settings was examined, and it was found that the neutral environment's photodegradation rate is a single value of 0.0029. This value varied depending on the time in a neutral and alkaline environment. As a result, the rate of degradation in the alkaline environment for the 60 min was 0.0071 (60–180 min), then 0.001 (120–300 min). The first degradation rate in an acidic environment was 0.0085 (60–120 min), then 0.0016 (120–300 min).