Mesoporous bimetallic S-doped nanoparticles prepared via hydrothermal method for enhanced photodegradation of 4-chlorophenol

Abstract

Magnesium oxides (MgO) have gained shown significant promise for a variety of applications, which can be modified by ions doping. In this study, bimetallic Ag-doped S–MgO nanoparticles were prepared by hydrothermal method and used for photocatalytic degradation of 4-chlorophenl (4-CP). EDX suggested the presence of no impurities, which mainly contained Mg, Ag, and S elements, suggesting that S and Ag were incorporated into the lattice of MgO as a result of successful doping. Estimated bandgap of Ag-doped S–MgO nanoparticles was 3.7 eV, lower than MgO (7.8 eV), but useful to improve optical characteristics and photocatalytic efficiency to degrade 4-CP up to a maximum of 99.60 ± 0.50%. The synergetic parameter during photocatalysis of 4-CP was 6.91, confirming the degradation of 4-CP. Quenching experiments proved the presence of hydroxyl radicals (•OH) and singlet dioxygen (1O2) that were critical in 4-CP degradation. The kinetics rate constant was increased by 24.8% from 0.086 ± 0.004 to 0.108 ± 0.005 min−1 by the addition of sulfate in the reaction medium. The work proposes a new synthetic method for preparing catalysts that are capable of producing in-situ •OH radicals and 1O2 to decompose the organic contaminants.