Investigation on antibacterial and photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine-B dye under visible light irradiation by titanium molybdate nanoparticles prepared via microwave method

Abstract

Titanium molybdate (TM) nanoparticles were synthesized by two different methods using titanium tetrachloride and ammonium molybdate as starting precursor. The obtained nanoparticles were examined by various analytical techniques such as powder XRD, FESEM, HRTEM, UV–visible spectroscopy, PL spectroscopy and FTIR analysis. The tetrahedral phase and crystallite size were determined using powder XRD. The morphology of the samples was examined by FESEM and HRTEM techniques. Titanium molybdate prepared via precipitation method (TM1) shows irregular and unclear morphology whereas titanium molybdate prepared thru microwave method (TM2) exhibits pores and sphere like structure. The elemental composition (EDX) confirms the presence of elements in the order of O > Ti > Mo for TM1 and Mo > Ti > O for TM2 samples. The functional groups were determined using FTIR analysis it exhibits lower frequencies for TM2 than TM1. UV–vis spectra show the optical energy gap of 3.0 eV and 2.78 eV for TM1 and TM2 samples respectively. The antibacterial effect of titanium molybdate (TM2) sample prepared via microwave method was studied in Staphylococcus aurous, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonuas aeruginosa. The obtained results states Staphylococcus aurous has noteworthy antibacterial activity than other two bacterial species. The photocatalytic activity of Rhodamine-B (RhB) under visible light irradiation expounded about 96% of dye was degraded after 150 min for titanium molybdate (TM2).