Abstract
The present work mainly aimed to synthesize different weight percentages (0.25–1.00 wt%) of Manganese (Mn2+) and Magnesium (Mg2+) bimetal ions doped TiO2 nanomaterial assisted with different weight percentages (5–15 wt%) of Gemini surfactant (GS) using sol-gel method. The bimetal doped and undoped TiO2 photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-Visible Diffused Reflectance Spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analyzer, and Photoluminescence Spectroscopy. Characterization results revealed that mesoporous multi-particle anatase TiO2 nanoparticles with a narrowed band gap, small particle size, and high surface area were formed due to the combined effect of Mn2+/Mg2+ bimetal ions doping and effective encapsulation of GS over the initially formed TiO2 nanoparticles. The surface elemental composition of the 0.25 wt% Mn2+ and 1.00 wt% Mg2+ bimetal doped TiO2 in the presence of 10 wt% of GS (after calcination) revealed the presence of both the metal dopants Mn2+ and Mg2+ along with the Ti and O and their chemical interactions were further confirmed by FT-IR results. The photocatalytic activity of these catalysts was assessed by the degradation of Methyl Red using visible light irradiation. To understand the effect of different reaction parameters on the photocatalytic activity of the nanocatalysts such as the dopant concentration, surfactant concentration, catalyst dosage, solution pH, and initial dye concentration were investigated and optimized to achieve the best performance. The photoluminescence results conclude that OH radicals are the crucial reactive species responsible for oxidative photocatalytic degradation of Methyl Red.
Highlights
It is worth noting that among the different semiconductors that are being studied from the past few decades for the photocatalytic degradation of various organic pollutants from wastewater, TiO2 stands as the most preferableMiditana et al Sustainable Environment Research (2021) 31:6 light activity [1,2,3]
Further decrease in crystallite size was observed for the catalyst prepared in presence of surfactant, MMTGS, which can be attributed to the effective capping nature of the GS which controls the nucleation and minimizes the agglomeration of TiO2 nanoparticles during the synthesis process [20]
The results demonstrate that the rate of degradation of Methyl Red (MR) dye increased up to 10 mg L− 1
Summary
It is worth noting that among the different semiconductors that are being studied from the past few decades for the photocatalytic degradation of various organic pollutants from wastewater, TiO2 stands as the most preferableMiditana et al Sustainable Environment Research (2021) 31:6 light activity [1,2,3]. Shape, and surface area of the photocatalyst play a major role in the photocatalytic degradation process of organic pollutants from wastewater, surfactants were the best-reported species to control the growth and agglomeration of nanoparticles during the synthesis process. Among those surfactants, more surface-active anionic Gemini surfactant, 1,4-Butane sultone (GS) plays an important role in effective encapsulation of initially formed TiO2 particles to synthesize the spherical shaped bimetal doped TiO2 nanoparticles with small grain size and large surface area [9]. In the present study, we aimed to synthesize the Mn2+ and Mg2+ bimetal doped TiO2 nanoparticles in the presence of GS using the sol-gel process through which we can achieve high purity and homogeneous materials at room temperatures under stoichiometry control [10]
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