Surfactant-Assisted synthesis of α-and β-Ag2WO4 modified with Sulphur, Phosphorous, and boron and their applications in wastewater elimination

Abstract

The surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was utilized to synthesize a combination of α and β-Ag2WO4 phases, which were accordingly doped with 20 % nonmetallic moieties including phosphorous (p), boron (B), and sulphur (S) via a mild precipitation route. Through characterization tools, information was obtained on surface and elemental concentration distribution, vibration, optical, morphological, and electronic properties. These materials were used as nanoadsorbents and photocatalysts. The S doped Ag2WO4 adsorbent (SAgW) has the best removal results (98.7 %) and it follows the Freundlich model of adsorption isotherm. The kinetics of dye adsorption follow the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. It was shown to achieve removal percentages of 98.6 % for indigo carmine dye (IC) and 98.8 % for methyl red dye (MR), demonstrating that the presence of other dyes has no effect on the removal percentage. AgW (CTAB-assisted synthesis) demonstrated high photocatalytic oxidation of IC at 20 mg/L in only 40 min with first-order kinetics of 0.12 min−1, exceeding that of PAgW by 6 times.