Enhanced electrochemical and photocatalytic performance of high quality silver nanoparticles

Abstract

• High-quality Ag NPs were synthesized via a facile chemical method. • Homogeneous Ag NPs were obtained in the rage: 10-30 nm. • High specific capacitance of 396 F/g and 89% of capacitance retention achieved. • Ag NPs show excellent degradation of bromophenol blue and fast green dyes. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) have gained considerable attention for use in various applications. This work presents a novel technique for the preparation of homogeniouse Ag NPs and fabricated most efficient supercapacitor (SC) and ultrafast photocatalytic degradation of textile dyes. The particles size was controlled by using sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 ) as a reducing agent and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a stabilizing agent. As a result, highly homogeneous Ag nanoparticles were prepared by the facile chemical method. The crystalline and morphological information and particle size (∼10-30 nm) of Ag NPs are determined via XRD, TEM and SEM analyses. The electrochemical performance of the Ag NPs exhibits pseudocapacitive behavior and a high specific capacitance of 396 F/g, achieving 89% of capacitance retention over 3,000 cycles. In addition, the Ag NPs demonstrate excellent performance for photocatalytic degradation of bromophenol blue (BP: ∼88% efficiency) and fast green (FG:∼89 % efficiency) dyes, respectively. Results clearly show that Ag NPs can be used for both energy storage as well as photocatalytic applications.