Study of photocatalytic and electrocatalytic activities of calcium tungstate nanoparticles synthesized via surfactant-supported hydrothermal method

Abstract

Here, calcium tungstate nanoparticles (CWONPs) were synthesized by the hydrothermal method. The reaction parameters including calcium salt concentration, surfactant concentration, reaction time and temperature have been optimized by Taguchi Design Method for smaller particles size. The morphology, size, crystallinity and chemical structure of nanoparticles were investigated by different methods. The optimized calcium tungstate nanoparticles (opt-CWONPs) with average size of 51 nm were showed outstanding removal effectiveness for three different pollutants including methyl orange, imipenem and imatinib mesylate over UV illumination. Nearly, 100% of methyl orange, 98% of imipenem and 60% of imatinib mesylate are degraded at 1800s over opt-CWONPs with banggap 3.7 eV. In addition, a modified carbon paste electrode was formed with opt-CWONPs and linear sweep voltammetry was used to analyze its electrocatalytical activity in acidic media. The findings showed that the carbon paste electrode modified by opt-CWONPs had a higher current density in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) than the bare carbon paste electrode. This article has subsequently revealed a revolutionary method for opt-CWONPs preparation and demonstrated its multifunctionality as photocatalyst and electrocatalyst active ingredients.