Novel existence of Mn and Cu in WO3 nanostructures for promising photocatalytic activity against MB dye and Levofloxacin antibiotic

Abstract

To enhance photocatalytic degradation of MB dye and Levofloxacin antibiotic, facile coprecipitation strategy was used to synthesize pure WO3 and novel Mn-Cu codoped WO3 nanostructures. The synthesized nanostructures were probed by XRD, SEM, EDX, FTIR, XPS, BET, TEM, PL and UV–vis spectra to analyze optical and morphological properties. Pure WO3, Mn2%-Cu1%-WO3, Mn2%-Cu3%-WO3, Mn2%-Cu5%-WO3 and Mn2%-Cu7%-WO3 were optimized novel materials that were used for water treatment against model impurities. Optical properties of pure WO3 were enhanced to successfully increase the photocatalytic degradation of principal water pollutants. Over a time span of 175 minutes, 86.7% of MB dye was degraded and 75.9% Levofloxacin was degraded by an average of 49 nm and 2.16 eV bandgap Mn2%-Cu5%-WO3 optimal sample. Due to smaller particle size, surface to volume ratio gave more active sites to the photocatalysts for pollutants degradations. Interestingly, just 15% degradation loss was observed after consecutive 6 cycles against the degradation of MB dye and 9.1% loss against Levofloxacin medicine after 6 photocatalytic runs. XPS spectra offered crucial insights into the elemental composition and chemical states of the Mn-Cu-WO3 nanostructures. According to these findings, Mn-Cu-WO3 can be used as a good candidate with long time stability against pollutants degradations.