Sonochemically recovered silver oxide nanoparticles from the wastewater of photo film processing units as an electrode material for supercapacitor and sensing of 2, 4, 6-trichlorophenol in agricultural soil samples

Abstract

The present work describes the sensing application and supercapacitive behavior of silver oxide nanoparticles recovered from wastewater of photo film processing units via one-pot green sonochemical recovery process. The recovered silver oxide nanoparticles (Ag2O NPs) were characterized by spectral techniques such as FT-IR, Raman, UV–Vis and analytical tools such as XRD, FE-SEM, TEM, EDX, XPS and BET. In view of Ag2O NPs as electrode material with wide technological applications, the recovered Ag2O NPs were examined for their sensing and supercapacitive behavior. The developed sensor was explored to detect 2, 4, 6-trichlorophenol, and as expected it shows moral parameters which are required of an effective sensor. Therefore, it was exploited for the quantification of 2, 4, 6-trichlorophenol in soil samples from the agricultural area. Cyclic voltammetric (CV), Galvanostatic Charge-Discharge (GCD) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopic (EIS) studies on the recovered Ag2O NPs coated Ni foam electrode depicted the pronounced capacitive behavior. The GCD studies revealed an enhanced electrochemical performance, particularly with the large specific capacitance of 530 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g. The cyclic stability of the electrode material was identified with 88% retention in specific capacitance even after 5000 GCD cycles. These results strongly proved that the recovered Ag2O NPs are potential candidates for sensing and supercapacitor applications.