Fabrication of Periodic Mesoporous Organo Silicate (PMOS) composites of Ag and ZnO: Photo-catalytic degradation of methylene blue and methyl orange

Abstract

Water resources are badly affected by industrial effluents containing organic azo dyes. The present study successfully synthesized silver (Ag) and zinc oxide (ZnO) supported periodic mesoporous organosilicates (Ag-PMOS and ZnO-PMOS) for catalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO). Initially, methyacryl functionalized periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMOS) framed through tween-80 ((T-80) C64H124O26) templates by co-condensation of sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) and 3-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (C10H20O5Si). Formerly, Ag-PMOS and ZnO-PMOS structured by adsorbing Ag and ZnO on PMOS. The synthesized PMOS, Ag-PMOS and ZnO-PMOS were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, TGA, Photoluminescence (PL) and TEM, which sign posted successful assortment of methyacryl, Ag and ZnO moieties in products. These materials found to have effective surface area proved by 81% and 48%, 47% and 57% competent degradation of MB and MO by Ag-PMOS and ZnO-PMOS respectively. Moreover, significant results of 71% and 45%, 44% and 54% reduction of MB and MO recuperated by recycled Ag-PMOS and ZnO-PMOS respectively. Substantial degradation competency and operative reusability of Ag-PMOS were superior than ZnO-PMOS due to better charge transfer capability and high durability. Outcomes of present work proved that Ag-PMOS and ZnO-PMOS have good catalytic properties for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) under visible lights.